Along the Road
by Velvet Sky Moon
Summary: Sam and Dean are looking into a case when they find more than they expected. Takes off from just after the season one episode 'Nightmare' and goes a little AU. Now with chapters for your reading convenience. Please R&R.
1. Prelude

Disclaimer: I don't own Sam or Dean, the Impala, or anyone else that seems familiar from Supernatural. It's all just for fun and entertainment, nothing else is gained. The unfamiliar faces, especially Nic, Alex, & Kris Wakefield and their family are mine though, for better or worse. L :)

Note: I have 'cast' the girls, and might have imagery later. But for reference, Nic looks like Elisabeth Harnois, Alex looks like Alyson Michalka, and Kris like AJ Michalka.

Note/Update (March 2008): This is the same story that has been up since August of 2007, I'm simply breaking it down into chapters so that it's hopefully easier for people to read it. It's so long, I realized it might be detouring people from reading it when they see that it's so long and all in one chapter. So this way people can read a couple chapters at a time and know where to pick back up the next time. :)

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Best Western Inn  
Tonopah, Nevada  
May 9, 2006 - Just before midnight 

A young couple laid in a hotel bed nearing sleep. The woman turned over feeling an odd pressure on her legs. As she did she was pulled up out of the bed, until she was hanging in mid air. Her husband jumped up, trying to pull her down, but could do nothing to move her. "Marie!"

"Charles, help!" She screamed, trying to grab hold of him.

Her clothes were ripped off and he grabbed the phone to call 911, not knowing what else to do. Marie saw nothing of her attacker, but the feeling was unmistakable as a forced violation of her body. Charles tried again to pull her down as he attempted to explain to the operator.

Scratches that looked like they were made by the claws of a bear or lion began to rip into her skin as she screamed. Then a large animal like bite ripped into the flesh of her shoulder. Blood dripped from her body to the bed below, staining the sheets with red.

Charles stared in shock and horror, barely able to mutter something intelligible on the phone line. He couldn't really even hear what the 911 operator was saying to him. He'd frozen as he watched Marie screaming, bleeding, being ripped apart by something he couldn't see. Maybe this was some horrible nightmare, "wake up, please wake up." He whispered, unaware of the confusion this was causing the person on the phone.

Marie screamed out once more before a crushing bite to her neck ended her scream and her life. She was dropped from the air to the bed, limp and brutalized. Charles just about crumbled next to her, dropping the phone and crying.


	2. Chapter 1

Highway 6 in Nevada headed west  
May 12, 2006, around 6:30 pm

Dean was driving, one hand on the wheel, the other arm resting on the door. The windows were down so the cool, crisp, desert air could keep him alert till they made it to Tonopah. The sun was sinking fast as they were still a couple hours outside their destination, and there wasn't a hint of civilization in sight. Sam sat looking out the window, neither of them had said anything in a while. Ever since they'd spotted this case they had been oddly quiet, especially coming off of recent events, like their encounter with another 'kid' like Sam. Sam wondered if this case was reminding Dean also of their mother's death, but then maybe anything would have made Sam think of his mom's death right now. Some mysterious force causing a death. Of course it wasn't the same thing that had killed their mother so many years ago, or Sam's girlfriend, Jessica, just about 6 months ago. There was no fire, and the body didn't get sucked to the ceiling, but none the less, it was bringing back those thoughts and emotions.

Sam looked at his brother and was about to start a conversation about it, "Dean-" But before Sam could get out more than his brother's name the car came screeching to a halt in the middle of the empty highway.

Dean stared out his windshield at the young blond haired girl standing just inches from the front bumper of his car. "Oh my god, what the hell!" His words came out sounding a bit angry, but he was really just scared out of his wits.

"Hi, sorry to stop you guys, but we could use some help." The girl said, seeming pretty unfazed considering she was nearly hit by the car. She gestured over at a blue, two door, 1966 Chevelle sitting just off the highway. Two other blonds stood by it, looking just about as freaked out as Sam and Dean were. "Our car broke down and our cells aren't getting any reception out here."

"What the hell are you doing Alex?" One of the girls shouted walking over to the Impala.

Sam managed to regain his voice after a moment of shock, "do you know what's wrong with the car?"

"Yeah, someone forgot to fill it up at the last gas station like she was supposed to." The girl who had been with the car, and appeared to be slightly older than the one still standing with her knees against the Impala's bumper, looked harshly at the younger girl. The third blond who looked younger yet than the one in front of the car followed behind, looking around from the other two girls to the guys in the car.

"You didn't say that. You said to fill it up if it got too low." The girl with her knees still against the bumper of the Impala, Alex, kind of shrugged and the youngest looking one seemed to roll her eyes and made a face, knowing that hadn't been what had been said.

"No, I said if it was anything less than three quarters full at the last gas station to fill it up. Apparently I can't even take a simple nap. You're never driving my car again." The older girl looked upset and Alex just sighed. The guys looked from one girl to the other trying to figure out what was what. Although both seemed to have the distinct impression that these three might be related.

"Whatever." Alex crossed her arms and stared off down the road.

"Whatever," The older waved her hand, then looked at the guys, "I'm really sorry about Alex, sometimes she just doesn't think. But we really are kind of stuck. I don't suppose you guys have a working cell phone, or something?"

Dean looked at the girls, still quiet, oddly. He looked at Sam and they exchanged glances. Generally they never picked people up, and most especially when they were on the job. But Dean had to admit he was a sucker sometimes for a hot blond, or three. The brothers seemed to agree without actually saying anything. Sam then spoke, "we just tried a ways back I don't think cells are much good out here."

Dean was checking his as Sam spoke just to be sure and then shook his head, "but we could give you ladies a ride to the next town, Tonopah. You could see about a tow or something from there. That is if you're not more scared of getting in a car with a couple strange guys then you are of the prospect of being stuck out here till God knows when." A bit of a mischievous smile crossed Dean's lips as he spoke. He couldn't help it, it was his nature.

Sam poked his brother, before opening the car door and standing up. "don't let my brother make you nervous, he's mostly harmless. I'm Sam, and that's Dean." He spoke mostly to the older looking girl, but glanced a few times at the others also.

The girl smiled, "thanks, and I'm thinking we don't have a lot of options, so I guess we'll have to take our chances with you guys. I'm Nic, that's my sister, Alex, in front of your car, and this is Kris." The youngest looking one, Kris, smiled shyly and kind of waved at Sam.

Alex then waved and smiled, "hello." She moved around to the side of the car near Sam. "So are you the younger one?" She was looking for someone to commiserate with, perhaps, on the annoyances of older siblings.

"Uh, yeah. It can be a pain sometimes never getting the keys to the car. But you should be more careful out here. We almost hit you." Sam said, his heart rate had finally returned to something resembling normal after the shock of nearly hitting her.

"Nah, I knew you'd stop in time." Alex answered as Dean got out of the car and opened the trunk. Kris was kind of leaning her hip against the side of the Impala, mostly watching her sister, Alex, speaking to Sam. Kris had already committed both names to her mind.

"So long as you girls aren't carrying a whole closet of clothes, we can probably fit your stuff in here so you don't have to leave it with the car." Dean said, sitting back on the open lip of the trunk.

Nic was already back at her car opening her own trunk. "Hey, girls, little help."

Alex rolled her eyes and moved to go help her sister when Dean put a hand up, "I got it." Kris too had turned, but when Dean seemed to indicate he'd go help Nic, Kris stayed put.

Sam was still processing the way Alex had said so matter of factly that she knew they'd stop in time. "But for as much as Dean likes to tease me about things, and he has all kinds of weird quarks, I wouldn't trade him for any other brother. But don't tell him that." He finally said with a smile, which earned a smile and a little giggle out of Alex, and a little smile from Kris, which Sam noticed. He let his gaze linger on her a moment, curious about her quietness.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Nic's a pain in my ass, a lot. But I'd be completely lost without her at the same time. We both would really." She glanced at her sister, Kris, who nodded and smiled again at Sam. "What is that anyway?" Alex asked as she hopped into the back seat when Sam pulled the door open for her.

Sam looked at Kris again, "you want to slide in?"

There was perhaps a faint blush on her cheeks, "sure." It was the first word Kris had spoken since the guys stopped. She stepped around, looking at Sam and smiling and then looking away. She climbed in and grinned at her sister.

Alex kind of giggled, "I know, they're cute, aren't they?" He voice soft so only Kris would hear her.

--------- 

Dean walked up to Nic at her trunk where she seemed to be speaking under her breath to her car. Without even thinking he laid a hand on her back and spoke, "I'm sure she'll be fine out here for the night. But I understand, I'd hate to leave that old girl out in the middle of nowhere."

Nic jumped slightly, a little surprised, but smiled slightly. "I just can't believe I can't even take a nap and trust her not to kill my car."

"And your other sister, she asleep too, or a co-conspirator?" Dean kind of chuckled, smiling at Nic.

"Asleep, or she probably would have said something." Nic kind rolled her eyes but smiled a little also, she was upset, but perhaps she wouldn't be after her car was safely full of fuel and on the road again. She pulled two moderate sized duffel bags out of the trunk which Dean immediately took from her hands. Then she slung a backpack over her shoulder, then picked up a small bag, and what looked to be a laptop case, and closed the trunk. There appeared to be a couple items she left in the trunk, but not much, "anyway, thanks for helping us out. This all we need."

"Girls who know how to travel light, I'm impressed." Dean grinned and headed toward his car, while Nic checked to make sure her car was locked up tight and then followed him and put her stuff in the Impala.

---------- 

"I think that's just the strange thing about family." Sam said with a smile, responding to Alex's comment a moment ago, feeling a little relieved to have his mind taken off his previous thoughts for a bit. He'd sat down in the back seat next to Kris, "So what are you girls doing out here anyway?"

"Just a little road trip, sister bonding thing, I guess." Alex said leaning back and resting her head, undisturbed, when Dean closed the trunk.

Nic stood next to the passenger side of the car and looked at Sam, "did you want to sit there?" She'd noticed the guy was pretty tall, and she didn't want to have him stuck in the back seat getting cramped.

Sam looked up, "yeah, sure, I've got enough space." He was content for the moment sitting in back, he'd sort of followed Alex's lead and leaned his head back and was feeling pretty comfortable for the moment. Alex kind of gave her sister this look like, 'quit worrying'.

Nic sat down and closed the car door, then turned and looked again at Sam, "just let me know if you want to trade seats." He smiled and nodded. She turned forward as Dean started the car up again. The Impala had pretty much remained sitting in the middle of the open highway, only halfway pulled to the side, but there wasn't another soul in sight.

As the car started to move, Nic turned to look back at her poor car sitting just off the road. She hated leaving it out here, but she really had no choice. It wouldn't do her any good to sit and wait hoping for someone with a working cell to pass by, or sitting out there the night with it and asking the guys to just send someone out in the morning. As the car began to get smaller, she turned forward again, looking out at the empty road in front of them.

"I noticed your license plate says Kansas. That where you're from?" Alex asked still sort of leaning back, reclining as much as was possible in the back seat. Kris kind of felt like she was in the middle of something now, not sure if she should lean forward or back, but that little kind of shy smile was still there.

"Yeah, that's where we're from, but I haven't lived there in a while. What about you girls?" Sam answered, sitting up more now, letting his stare shift from Kris and Alex next to him to Nic in front of him and back again as he asked his question.

"California, it's sort of where we're headed back to. But we're not really in any rush either. Seeing as Spring semester at the college is nearing over. I might think about going next fall, but we had to do this little trip." Alex spoke sort of vaguely, and as if she didn't really care about any of it.

"You should go to college. I was going to go to law school, but kinda had to put that on hold. I miss it though, I still really wish I could be there sometimes." Sam admitted, and ignored the look he could tell Dean was giving him.

"Yeah, I know, I do want to go. And after this trip, I am starting to wonder if maybe I should have just stayed and gone to school and not gone along with Nic's little trip." Which was an honest assessment of how Alex felt at this very moment in time.

Kris' face changed, looking kind of nervous and she gave Alex this look that said, 'shut up'. The trip had been kind of long and three girls in one car tended to lend its self to bickering. But Kris knew that a comment like that would get to her oldest sister.

Nic spun around in her seat and gave her sister a look that could only be described as a glare, "excuse me, but I seem to recall you were the one who insisted I take you with me, and who talked me into letting you and Kris take a semester off of school. A semester that's turned into almost a year now." Nic was still feeling highly irritable, particularly with her sister. She was still blaming Alex for her car sitting out on a stretch of highway in the middle of nowhere.

Dean glanced at the girl next to him, when she moved, and glanced at Sam over her head and smiled. Despite the fact it was a fight they were watching, it was so distinctly sibling, that it was kind of funny. Dean thought how easily this fight could have been him and Sam with a few minor alterations to subject matter. Maybe it was weird that he was amused by the sisters fighting, but he was.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's just been a lot longer and more tiring than I thought it would be." Alex said, looking at her sister and trying to calm the situation. She immediately felt bad for making it sound like it was Nic's fault they were in this, because it wasn't her fault. Alex and Kris had wanted to come along with Nic when she'd decided to take this little cross country venture. After a moment of Nic staring at her with that look on her face, and a good elbow nudge from Kris, Alex finally conceded the word she knew her sister was looking to hear, "sorry."

With that Nic turned back around and didn't say anything else to her sister. "So, what's the age difference between you?" Dean finally had to ask a question of the girls.

"Eight years, so she likes to play mom to Kris and I. You two don't look as far apart. Does that make things easier or harder?" Alex replied, before Nic could, looking at Dean's reflection in the rear view and wondering if he could see her in it too. He could and he smiled at the girl in the seat behind him via the mirror.

"We're about four years apart, and I'm not sure that it makes a big difference. We still bitch at each other all the time." Dean left it at that, not speaking what he felt, that regardless he loved his brother with all his heart, and would do anything for him. But Dean avoided sappy moments as much as humanly possible, and then some. He noticed Alex smirk and it made him smile.

"So, you just finished high school, and you're what? Eighteen, and she's ..." Sam paused a moment, "twenty six?"

Alex nodded that was correct.

Kris was looking at Sam now, and he smiled at her, "What about you? You look a little younger than Alex. Are you in high school still?"

"Yeah, I'm 16, but I've been working on stuff on the road. Kind of like home schooling, and I'm graduating this year." Kris was two years younger than her sister, Alex, but had wound up only one grade behind her because of some early grade jumping on Kris' part. Though she didn't think herself all that much smarter than anyone else. If anything, she'd always seen her sisters as smarter than she was.

"Kris is a smart one." Alex smiled a little brighter and softly rubbed her sister's shoulder. Then she looked over at Sam again, "So, where are you guys headed to anyway?"

"We're stopping in the next town to sleep a while and figure out what's next." Sam said, being vague, because he didn't want to creep them out with what they were really doing. Most people didn't believe, and he had no desire to scare a group of girls they were trying to help out.

"Is this like a brother bonding road trip then?" Alex glanced at Dean, out of the corner of her eye and smiled back at Sam.

Sam looked at her, almost feeling like she knew there was something he wasn't saying, "Yeah, something like that." He looked from Alex's face to Kris, and on her face as well, he felt like she knew he was leaving something out. He just hoped they didn't think it was something horrible. Well, it was horrible, but not for them. He just didn't want them to think he and Dean weren't trustworthy.

There was a bit of a pause in the conversation as they drove along and the road began to grow darker, though still not dark enough for Dean to flip the lights on just yet. But the sun was hanging pretty low on the horizon, throwing a rich reddish glow across the western sky.

"How long were you out there before we came along anyway?" Sam realized they hadn't seen another car on this road for probably a good hour, since leaving Ely, before they came upon the girls.

"Over a half hour at least, maybe forty-five minutes," Nic said, turning slightly in her seat to glance over her shoulder at Sam. "I'm really glad you guys stopped. Thanks."

"Sure, no problem. You girls are a nice change of company. Not that I don't enjoy hanging out with Sam, but I'm betting you understand when I say, there's such a thing as too much togetherness with siblings. Especially in a small enclosed space." Dean cut into the conversation, with one of those shit eatin' grins on his face, clearly teasing at Sam. Kris couldn't help giggling a little at that, her way of agreeing. Dean then pushed in one of his cassette tapes, in need of a little more noise than was currently being provided, and Metallica's 'Until It Sleeps' began blasting.

"You'll have to forgive my brother's taste in music, or lack there of." Sam shouted just slightly over the music.

"That's okay, we can listen to almost anything. Kris and I are a touch pickier than she is, but not much." Nic said, glancing at Alex who was already singing along to the song. Dean, again, smiled at the girl behind him, and then gave his brother a triumphant sort of grin, as if to say, 'see, the hot girls don't think my music sucks'.  



	3. Chapter 2

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 12, 2006, About 8:30 pm

Not much more was said for the rest of the ride, over the blaring music. Sam finally leaned forward and turned the music down when they crossed into the town of Tonopah and they got an annoyed look from a local. The windows were still down and the music was pouring out upon the ears of the people on the street.

"Hey! You're not even in the passenger's seat, so you really shouldn't be touching the music." Dean didn't seem to notice, or maybe it was just that he didn't care that the type and volume of the music was bothering pedestrians on the street. He kind of smacked at Sam's hand. It was a town of not even 3,000 people and Sam didn't think the best first impression was Dean's loud music.

"You want to piss off the locals? Besides, the motel can't be far." Sam leaned back and Dean rolled his eyes, but left the music off. They soon came upon the motel that they'd called the day before, Dean pulled in and the bunch climbed out of the car. The parking lot there was surprisingly full for such a little middle of nowhere town.

"You girls might want to get a room for the night. I'm betting after six most things beside the bars in this town are closed." Dean said closing his car door and glancing at Alex and Kris who were climbing out on his side of the car.

"You're probably right." Nic looked at her sisters. Alex was already yawning and stretching. Nic still didn't get how her sister managed to sleep anywhere any time so easily. Kris wasn't quite as out like a light as Alex, but she fell asleep fairly easy after a long day, and while Kris was smiling softly, Nic could tell she was a touch tired as well.

They all walked into the motel's office. The manager gave them a smile, "We're about full up here. Any of you call ahead?"

"Yeah, we did. It should be under Ford." Dean said with a smile.

"Last room in town." The manager chuckled as he dropped the keys in front of Dean who was signing the paper for the room, then grabbed the keys and was half way to the door when he noticed Sam wasn't following. Sam remained by the desk as Nic talked to the manager.

"Is that really the last room in town?" Nic asked the manager. This didn't seem like a busy town. Alex meanwhile was leaning against the wall by the door, not really paying any attention to anything. Kris stood back a bit, but was listening carefully, looking a little concerned at the sound of the last room in town.

"Sure is, Missy. There's a big Old West Miner's Historical convention in town, plus the Browns are having their annual family reunion. Such a shame 'bout that granddaughter of theirs." The manager shook his head. He was an old skinny, gray haired man who seemed to like to talk. "Wish I could help ya."

Nic glanced at her sisters, trying to decide what to do when Sam spoke up, "don't worry, come on." He put his hand on her back and pushed her toward the door. "You girls can stay in our room."

Dean heard this as they exited, and stopped and turned around. "Wait, I'm not sleeping in the car again."

"You guys have already helped enough. We can figure something out for ourselves." They'd managed before, of course they usually had a car to sleep in, but Nic didn't want to further burden these guys with her troubles.

"Seriously, it's fine. And they said the room has two queen beds, so we'll just share." It wouldn't have been the first time Sam and Dean shared a bed. Though, granted, Dean had been about ten, and Sam about six the last time it happened. It wasn't a big deal, and Sam wasn't going to just leave a few of girls out in the cold to find someplace to sleep.

"Yeah, okay. I can deal with that." Dean relaxed and gave Nic a smile, an actual genuine smile, noticing she still looked a little unsure about imposing, then turned and headed toward the room which was just a little ways from where he'd parked. He might not have been thrilled about sharing a bed with Sam, but it would still be more comfortable than the car. "You girls want to grab anything from the car?"

Sam was impressed with how well Dean was behaving, he'd kind of expected a little more protest from his brother. But maybe it helped that the girls were all pretty hot. They all paused again at the car and Sam and Dean each grabbed their bags. Nic reached in and pulled out two of their bags and held them out to her sisters. Alex rolled her eyes upon receiving it. Alex was sleepy now, and when Alex was sleepy, she got grumpy. And grumpy right now amounted dirty looks for having to carry her own bag the whole twenty yards to the motel room. Kris took hers with a tired smile and moved first toward the motel rooms, though she didn't know which one they were to be staying in. Nic had grabbed up one more bag and the laptop case. Sam closed the trunk once the girls had what they wanted, since Dean was already half way to the motel room.

They entered to find a reasonably sized motel room with two queen beds and the usual amenities, TV, night table, a couple lamps, a small table by the window with two chairs, and a dresser and bathroom. Dean dropped his bag on the floor, kicked off his shoes, stripped off his coat, shirt, and jeans and was ready to drop into bed in about a minute flat, though he was thinking before he actually did he'd hit the bathroom.

"Dude, ladies in the room." Sam looked at his brother with utter disbelief at his actions.

"What? It's not like I'm naked, besides Alex is 18, right?" He looked at Alex who nodded and was already crawling onto the other bed and pushing her shoes off at the same time.

"Yeah, but Kris isn't, and besides..." Sam shook his head in that kind of exasperated, disapproving way. Kris did flush a little red at the sight of Dean in his boxer briefs, but she was smiling a little and her eyes kept darting from looking at Dean to looking away.

Sam looked at Nic ready to apologize again for Dean, but she just laughed. "Don't worry about it. We're the ones freeloading here. So the least we can do is try not to cramp your style too much." She brushed a hand down Kris' arm and smiled at her sister. She was kind of the 'quiet one', probably embarrassed the easiest, and definitely the one that Nic kind of 'babied'. Though Kris wasn't dumb or unaware of things, she just wasn't as seemingly unbothered by the outside world as Alex was.

Nic slipped off her shoes, and immediately lost a couple inches in height. The top of her head maybe coming to near Sam's chin. Not short, but her shoes had clearly had some kind of height to them. "Did you girls want to use the bathroom?"

"Me" Alex raised her hand and dragged herself and her bag off the bed, as Dean stood up again after having sat on the bed he was claiming for himself. But Alex had gotten the bed nearest the bathroom and was inside before she could even notice if anyone else had wanted it.

"Please tell me she doesn't take forever in there." Dean said to Nic, "cause I really gotta bleed the lizard."

Kris giggled at what Dean said and sat herself down on the bed her sister had claimed. She was opening her bag and pulling out her pajamas and a little bathroom bag so she didn't have to bring her whole duffel bag in with her. After pulling out what she wanted she set them on the end of the bed nearest the bathroom and set her duffel bag by the dresser, out of the way.

Sam reached out and smacked his brother's arm with the back of his hand. Dean rolled his eyes, and otherwise ignored it, focusing rather on the bathroom door. "She shouldn't take long." Nic said smiling, still amused at the brothers' behavior.

After about three minutes Alex reappeared from the bathroom wearing little green shorts and a long sleeved gray top. Her jeans, blue top, and sweatshirt in a mass in her arms which she tossed on top of her bag, on the floor, by the wall before dropping onto the bed as the bathroom door shut again with Dean inside.

"I'm glad my brother doesn't seem to have completely offended you. He's a little..." Sam searched a moment for the right word to describe his brother, but nothing proper seemed to come to him, so he went with what he had, "weird."

"That's okay, if you didn't already notice, Alex sometimes forgets that not everyone lives in Alex land. People sometimes take her the complete wrong way. It's just that I understand her that she doesn't bug me more than she does." Nic smiled at Sam, and tugged on her sister's toe, knowing without even looking that Alex was giving her a dirty look.

"I may live in my own little world, but look out, cause that one is the grade A bitch when she wants to be." Alex said sticking her tongue out at her sister and pulling her feet up to her chest, and then sliding under the sheets.

It was probably typical that the middle child be the 'peace maker', but with them, it was usually Kris who played peace maker. Maybe because with such an age difference between Nic and Alex that they just were bound to push each other at times. It wasn't as if Kris was always mediating, generally the sisters all got along pretty well, but with all this time together in a car, they occasionally annoyed each other. Though Kris perhaps didn't show it as much, or annoy her sisters as much as they did each other. But Kris tended to avoid confrontations and conflict whenever she could.

Dean now emerged from the bathroom and dropped down on the side of the bed, nearest the girls' bed, which was where Sam was sitting on the bottom corner. The force with which Dean collapsed onto the bed nearly bounced Sam off it. Dean chuckled lightly and then climbed into bed. Sam gave him an annoyed look and stood up, then looked down at Nic and Kris, realizing he was about to forget his own manners.

"Go ahead, I can wait." Nic said waving Sam toward the bathroom.

Kris made a kind of face that Sam noticed and smiled at, "you need to go first?"

She smiled and nodded, "I'll be quick, I promise." She hopped up and hurried in. The bottle of water she'd had earlier started to hit when she sat and started to get comfortable on the bed.

"Okay." Sam kind of chuckled, and remained on his feet. He glanced at Alex who's eyes were closed and looked to be drifting off to sleep already, then at Nic again. There was a kind of silence in the room and he felt like there were things he wanted to ask, but he'd probably get a look from Dean for doing so. Because any question he asked of the girls would kind of invite them to ask the same of them, and Sam didn't know how much more he could say about what they were doing without actually saying what they were doing, or flat out lying. Neither of which were things Sam wanted to do.

It really was just a couple of minutes when Kris came out of the bathroom in little striped pajama pants and a little tank top. "That was quick, right?" She looked kind of hopeful at Sam, perhaps even a little out of breath, like she'd hurried in the bathroom so as not to take too long.

"It was quick, thanks." Sam smiled at Kris and softly touched her shoulder before moving toward the bathroom. He glanced once more at Dean, as if to say, 'behave', and then closed the bathroom door.

Kris went to put her jeans, green shirt and bathroom bag back in her duffel bag before crawling onto the bed, figuring she'd sleep in the middle, since Alex had seemed to doze off on the side closest to the bathroom, and she knew Nic would prefer end sleeping.

Nic shook her head and looked at Dean. He gave her a grin and propped his head up on his hand. "Seriously, he thinks I'm like some dog that's not house broken."

"Yeah, that's not fair, I saw you go in and use the bathroom." Nic gave him a sort of coy smile. Kris covered her mouth trying not to giggle. She was lying down now, looking over at Dean on the other bed.

Dean laughed, "ah, I see. Blondie got game." He shot Kris a little grin before looking back at Nic.

"I have my moments." Nic pulled a few things out of her bag and set them on the bed, before dropping the bag on the floor.

Dean then glanced at the other girls and noticed Alex looked gone already. He even lowered his voice a little, "Is she asleep already?"

Nic turned to glance at her sister, leaning over Kris a little to look closer, then turned back to Dean, "I think so. She was getting tired." Kris had glanced over at her sleeping sister too and kind of nodded to confirm.

"And I thought I could crash out fast." He then shifted, slipping his arm under the pillow, and laying his head down. "She seems like a good kid though."

"She is, she's a little irresponsible, but I guess most eighteen year olds are. I may have been a little bit too at that age. But she always means well." The affection in Nic's voice for her sister, clear in this statement. Kris was listening as her eyes closed, letting herself start to drift toward sleep a little.

"Funny how we worry over our younger siblings isn't it?" Dean spoke very softly, clearly meant for just Nic to hear him, showing more sensitivity for a moment to her then he did to most people ever. And he was still safely on this side of 'sappy'. It wasn't exactly what she'd said, but he knew she'd get it. Nic nodded at him as Sam walked back into the room, having missed Dean's brief moment of sensitivity. Nic and Dean exchanged a little smile before she got up to go use the bathroom. She brushed past Sam as he headed for his bed, he now wore dark red flannel pants, and a dark grey t-shirt.

Dean looked at his brother, "don't worry, I behaved myself." The bathroom door clicked shut behind Nic as Dean spoke.

"Heh." Sam smiled and dropped his bag on one of the chairs nearest his side of the bed, and then climbed in next to Dean. Sam realized Alex and Kris seemed pretty still and silent. "Are they asleep already?"

"Yeah, think so." Dean rolled slightly onto his back so he could look over at his brother.

"They seem nice. I kind of like having them here." Sam admitted.

Dean considered cracking a joke, about 'of course', that he did too because the girls were hot, but stopped himself before the words came out. Instead he just said, "yeah, but I doubt they'd want to stick around if they knew what we do."

Sam nodded, knowing Dean was probably right. Most people weren't believers like them. And to hunt those things that go bump in the night, well, it even scared the crap out of Sam sometimes, and he'd grown up with it. Somehow having some girls around, sisters, made the space between seem a little more 'normal'. Sam missed normal sometimes. But it seemed like they were just destined to have anything remotely normal taken from them.

It was a few minutes when Nic came out of the bathroom wearing black, track style sweat pants with white trim, and a 'Happy Bunny' long sleeved shirt that said, "whatever," on it. Sam watched her as she shoved her sweater and jeans she'd been wearing into her bag and then moved the bag over against the wall before sitting down on her side of her bed. She looked over at the brothers' bed. She smiled at Sam, and Dean looked to be asleep now. She slid her legs into bed and glanced once more at Sam with her fingers on the light switch. Sam nodded at her and she switched off the light. Sam could hear, and sort of make out her form as she slid down into the bed. He then turned over and looked at the window, just a sliver of light from the street shone through a small part between the curtains near the top of the window.

-------

Sam lay, still trying to fall asleep, he wasn't sure for how long, a half hour or hour maybe, just staring at the crease of light. He often had trouble getting to sleep, sometimes scared of what he might encounter in his dreams. He hadn't really noticed the occasional shifting sounds of a body moving between sheets, until there was a fast sound and it sounded like someone had sat up. He knew it wasn't Dean, cause he would have felt the movement. He looked over his shoulder to see who. His eyes had adjusted a while ago and he could see now even in this dark that it was Nic.

Nic didn't notice Sam's slight movement in the other bed. She stood up and moved over to her bag and things by the wall and slipped her feet into her shoes. While she was wiggling her foot around, with one hand on the wall, Sam carefully slid out of bed and stood up moving over near her, but trying to avoid startling her, since she didn't appear to have noticed he was awake. Nic turned and wobbled, almost falling into the dresser next to her when she saw Sam. He moved to catch her if she was going to fall, but she caught herself with the wall, and a hand on her own heart. Her eyes were definitely wide open now. "You scared me." Her voice barely even a whisper.

"Sorry. What are you doing?" Sam leaned in close so he could speak as quietly as possible.

"Can't sleep. Taking a walk." She said before bending over to lift Alex's sweatshirt from off her bag and tossing it on, and moving toward the door.

"Wait, I'll come with you." Sam moved past her to his stuff slipping on his sneakers and jacket. He grabbed the key too, just in case. Nic waited by the door and they slipped out quietly so as not to wake their sleeping siblings. 


	4. Chapter 3

Tonopah  
May 12, About 10 pm or so

Once they were outside and started walking a few feet from the rooms, Sam spoke again, still softly, but more of a normal soft, "do you do this a lot? Take walks in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah, Alex and Kris seem to fall asleep so quick and easy, and I can spend literally all night tossing and turning without getting a wink of sleep. So I started trying to get up and do something whenever I hit a point in trying to sleep where I start to feel like the process of trying to sleep is actually keeping me awake." She laughed slightly, realizing that probably sounded a little confusing. Her sisters didn't seem to have the insomnia issues Nic had.

"Does it work? Cause I sometimes have the same problem." Sam asked as they reached the side walk and began walking along the side of the road. The motel was just a couple blocks from the main road in downtown. It was still actually reasonably early, around 10 pm, so there was still activity in the bar further down the street.

"Yeah, usually. There are always those times where nothing works, but usually. I guess I'm not surprised I can't sleep right now though. I'm usually not one to sleep before midnight, so." She tugged at one of the strings on the sweat shirt, a bit absently.

"I'm gonna guess that Alex, Kris, and Nic might be short for something else, or is that it?" He looked down at her, moving at the mild pace she was setting, keeping step with her.

"Yeah, Alexandria, Kristianna, and Nicollette. Our dad always just called us Alex, Kris, and Nic. I think he always wanted a son, instead he got us girls." She shrugged, not bothered by it. She knew her dad loved her and her sisters with everything he was, but once she hit her teens she did get the impression he sort of wished he'd had a boy, too. And that may have been the plan, to try one more time for a boy after Kris, but as fate would have it, that would never happen.

"Nicollette, that's pretty." Sam glanced from her to the ground and kicked a pebble with his toe, then looked back at her without missing a step.

"Yeah, it is. No one's called me that in ages though. I'm Nicki sometimes, but," Nic shrugged softly as she tucked her hands into the sleeves and she brought one to her face and breathed in. Even though it had been years and many washings since her father last wore it, and she knew in her head that there couldn't be any lingering smell anymore, no matter what, when she sniffed that sweatshirt, it always smelled like her father. Sam seemed to notice the action and looked at her a little questioningly. She took a moment to breathe before explaining it. "It was our dad's. He died a few years ago. I know there can't really be anything of his scent left in it, but I still smell it. I think Alex does too, which is why I only get to wear it when she's not. She kind of monopolizes it. I'm not sure Kris ever wears it at all."

"Sorry, we lost our mom when we were really young. Dean wasn't even in school yet, and I was a baby. Sometimes it actually scares me that I have to think about what my mom looked like. That it's not just an instant image in my mind." Sam admitted, speaking easily to Nic.

"Really? Us too." Nic said, looking up at Sam. "That's weird."

"You did? When?" Sam was surprised, and sad at the same time, realizing that that meant that the girls had no parents left. He wondered if they had other family, or what, but didn't ask any of that.

"Kris, like you, was just a baby. She's said just about the same thing you did. It is scary. Even Alex, she was only about two and a half. I can't imagine what it's like for them, struggling to even recall our mom's face sometimes. When Alex gets mad at me she always likes to throw that one at me, because she knows it'll stop me dead in my tracks. Kris used it once I think, long time ago, but not in ages. Even though it's not like I can do anything to change it, I still sometimes feel somehow guilty that I got nearly eleven years with our mom, and they got next to nothing. Alex wasn't really old enough to retain a lot of memories, just impressions, Krissie doesn't even have that." Nic was now staring at the street off in the distance where there was a neon light on that read, 'Coors', in the window of a bar.

Sam didn't respond right away, he was processing what she said. He'd actually tossed that one at Dean once himself, and now he wondered if his brother felt the way Nic did. He wondered if Dean felt guilty that he got more time with their mother. Sam hoped not, knowing he'd probably never actually discuss it with his brother. Dean usually changed the subject when conversations started to get into emotionally laced territory. He was about to say something when he then realized that he actually didn't know what to say to that. He looked at Nic, the loss of words apparent. She just shrugged and gave him a sort of crooked half smile.

"It's a weird life, never knowing one of your parents. My dad was never the same either, or so I hear. I never knew him any other way." Sam looked up to noticed a couple walking toward them, looking perhaps slightly intoxicated, probably walking home from one of the bars. The pair smiled at Sam and Nic, and Sam smiled back slightly and stepped in behind Nic so the two could pass them. As he did, he put his hands on her shoulders, mostly to keep himself from running into her. When the couple was behind them, he moved back next to her, letting the hand that had been on her far shoulder slide across her back before falling from her and back at his side.

Sam wasn't always so immediately 'touchy' with a person, but Nic, Alex, and Kris from the start had given him this odd vibe of kindred spirits, and now he really felt like that was perhaps so. She shoved her hands in the front pocket of the sweatshirt and spoke again, "My dad was definitely different after my mom died. He was suddenly left alone to raise three girls. One that was just a toddler and one a baby. For a good month after Alex would just scream the whole night through. Dad did what he could to try and soothe her, but for a while she really was pretty inconsolable. And usually her screaming would get Kris crying. Which I think is what in the long run lead to my dad treating them special, Alex especially. Anything they wanted, he gave them, though Kris has always been less demanding. I think it was his way of trying to make up for them not having Mom."

Sam nodded, as she seemed to glance across the street. He just followed her, letting her lead them over to the other side and then begin walking back the direction they came, but on the opposite side of the street. "What about you? I remember dad saying that I cried too for a while, and Dean was the opposite, he stopped speaking almost entirely for like weeks or something."

"I didn't stop talking or anything, but I guess I was quieter than before. Although it may have just been I didn't really have anyone to talk to. I didn't have a lot of friends, and the few I did seemed uncomfortable with the whole subject. And my father was so busy trying to help Alex and Kris, I think he assumed because I was older and I wasn't spending my nights screaming and crying, that I had everything sorted. Obviously he didn't quite get the mind of the eleven year old girl, but that's okay. He did the best he could." Nic smiled, though her voice was clearly somber.

"How did she die? If I can ask." Sam realized her next question might be to ask the same thing of him, but he didn't have to lie, he could just not tell the whole truth.

"It was a freak attack, in our house. She was beaten up." Nic didn't elaborate any further than that, it wasn't really a path she felt like treading right now. "Your mom?"

"A fire. Half our house burnt." It was true, just not the elaborate truth. Which was good, because Sam didn't think he'd be comfortable out right lying to Nic right now. He almost wanted to tell her the whole truth, but he knew he couldn't. He wished he could explain it to someone. Someone other than Dean. Hell, he usually couldn't even explain it to Dean. It was on that list of conversations Dean refused to have with him, or anyone else. But it felt good to say what he could, to share his pain with someone, someone who understood it.

Neither of them said anything else for about a block, just walking in comfortable silence with each other. Their arms brushed every few steps, but they otherwise were in their own momentary bubbles.

It was Sam who spoke first, altering the subject a little, "so is there a bigger purpose or reason behind this road trip. Seeing as it sounded like it wasn't originally supposed to be something you all were going to do together."

"It was something I'd decided I wanted," she paused and altered her words, "needed to do after my dad died. But I knew then that I couldn't do it right away. It wasn't until Alex graduated and was, well in my plan she was going to go to college, and I was going to take off. Kris was almost finished with school so I could kind of let Alex look after her. But they both seemed determined to come. And I guess like my dad, I have trouble denying them anything. Especially when Alex goes as far as to plan how it'll work so well for them to come. Along the way it sort of turned into a journey for all of us, as sisters. Not just our own personal journeys."

"Dean sort of forced me into this little road trip. He said he needed me to come, I tried resisting, but Dean can pretty stubborn and persistant. With him it's less that I can't deny him anything, so much as he won't let me deny him anything." Sam actually laughed and smiled at that, and glanced at Nic as she smiled and let a little giggle float his way.

"So is this a trip for something? It sounded like this was what put law school on hold for you. It must have been important for you to put something like that off." Nic asked, a cautious tone in her voice. She felt the vibe too, sort of kindred spirits, it was easy talking to Sam, but she was still aware of the fact that people had personal boundaries. And they were definitely already pushing those tonight.

"Yeah, well, ever since my mom, my father's been on a sort of one man crusade. Well, until Dean joined him, and then it became a two man crusade. Our dad kind of dropped off the radar though a few months ago, and Dean needed me to come help him track him down. We've gotten a few clues from him since, but I don't know. It's weird. Sometimes I think he's fine and just so wrapped up in something he can't be bothered to call and talk to us like a normal father, and other times I think maybe he's dropped dead somewhere. Some days I just really want to go back to my life. But I know I can't now." Sam was pretty sure he wasn't making sense anymore, but Nic was nodding anyway. Even if she didn't get it, it was nice for someone to just listen.

Nic was starting to think this was actually sounding eerily familiar. It was like a page out of her family. "That's weird. My dad kind of did that too, just threw himself into working, it was actually what killed him, in a way. And what altered my life plans and goals completely. I was graduating Berkeley soon with a degree in psychology, I was applying to go to Yale. They had this amazing Biology program that was offering a full scholarship to grad school. But when my dad died, I couldn't just leave. My dad was an only child and his parents died when I was little. My mom's parents disowned my sisters and I after our mom died, thinking my dad was insane. And my mom's sister and her were never close, she lives in like Spain or someplace, and the last time I even heard from her was when she turned up at our house two weeks after my mom died to claim half my mother's belongings. I barely even know any of them. So, I suddenly, at 21, became my sisters' legal guardian. Which meant no Yale grad school, no living on my own, being my own person, like all those other college kids. And most of all, no Dad to come home to."

"You sound a little wistful, but not really upset though, about the college thing." Sam observed that while she looked a little like she missed what may have been, she wasn't too bothered by what wound up either.

"Well, I wound up doing graduate studies at Berkeley, in a pretty amazing program. And while I wound up having to get a job to help pay for it and everything else, it was it's own experience. Are you upset that you aren't going to law school right now?" They had come back to where their motel was, but neither made a move to cross the street. Then Sam moved a few steps and sat down on a bench next to a bus stop. In a town like this, he doubted buses ran after about 8pm.

"A little, sometimes. I don't know. Maybe upset isn't the right feeling, maybe frustrated. I was ready to go back. Dean was gonna let it go after a couple days. But when I got back home... I was going to Stanford, my girlfriend, Jessica..." Sam's voice began to catch and then trailed off a moment. He then gathered himself again, "right after I got back, before Dean was even gone down the road, there was a fire. Jessica died, it just brought everything back from my mom and growing up in the wake of that."

Sam struggled to keep himself all together when Nic sat down on the bench next to him. She put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a little squeeze and then gently rubbing her hand back and forth over his shoulder. He looked at her and tried to smile, hoping she wouldn't take her hand away just yet. It was nice to be touched again. It seemed like it had been a while. Nic got a sense now that there was a missing piece to the whole story, but didn't ask him for it. She hadn't told him her whole detailed story, he didn't have to tell her his. He clearly needed a friend right now, maybe one who could provide a better shoulder on which to cry than his brother could. Dean hadn't seemed the type to handle people crying on his shoulder, even his brother. Nic scooted in a little closer to Sam, and stretched her arm over his shoulders a little more and let her finger tips slide back and forth on his back.

Sam watched her as she moved closer to him. He got the sense she wasn't actually very used to this, but he was grateful for her effort. She was cautious and gentle, he let his head fall to rest on her shoulder, and reached his arms easily around, hugging her. Sam felt the little intake of air she made when he hugged her. She hadn't expected him to just fall into her like that. The only people Nic had really, honestly hugged in a couple years were Kris and Alex. Even then, that was usually a very quick little hug that followed a good fight, the kind that actually required them to talk about it a little and apologize from the heart, or when one of them was just really down and out. Sam considered for a moment pulling back right away, but she seemed to relax after the initial surprise. And between the swirling of things in his head and the cold of the night, he really liked the comforting, warm body against him. After a minute she let her other hand reach up and wrap around his shoulder, and let her cheek settle against his head.

They sat like that for a while, Sam shifted when he realized he was actually about to fall asleep there. He'd gotten so comfortable, snuggled up to her, he really could have fallen asleep. Nic, while comfortable, was no where near about ready to fall asleep. She'd been watching as small groups of people came and went from the bar down the way, and smiled at a couple people who had passed by. Nic pulled back a little when Sam shifted. "Thanks, a lot. I think I really needed that. I think I might actually be ready to sleep now." He smiled warmly at her, one hand pulled back to his side, but his left hand, which was on her side, remained resting gently on her lower back.

Nic pulled her arms back and stood up, "no problem. It was nice for me too. I haven't sat like that with anyone in... well, I can't remember. Alex, Kris, and I used to sit up together sometimes, but somewhere around the time Dad died, that sort of ended, and I don't really know why."

Sam wanted to say that if she ever needed, or wanted to again, all she had to do was let him know. But then he realized that she and her sisters might be about to walk out of his life tomorrow. "It's a good thing to do sometimes. Otherwise you end up all cold and unable to feel and express emotions, like Dean." He cracked a little smiled at her, and she smiled back at him.

"You might be right," They crossed the street and walked back toward the room. Sam kept his hand on her back the whole time, wishing there was some way to make the girls stay another day, or two, or more.

They entered the room, it had been about an hour and a half since they left, Dean, Kris, and Alex were all still sound asleep. Sam and Nic pulled off their shoes and Sam dropped his coat back on the chair while Nic put the sweatshirt back in the heap where Alex had left it. Part of Sam wanted to shove Dean out of the bed and ask Nic to just curl up with him, so he could sleep a little easier. But he knew that was totally out of the question. Nic gave him a little smile before she slipped into bed and turned over, away from him. He got into bed and looked at the window again, hugging his pillow, and managed to drift off to sleep after not too long.


	5. Chapter 4

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 13, 2006, About 3:30 am

It was not quite morning yet when Sam began to twist in his bed. He was dreaming, much like he had the night before they had heard about that woman that had been killed in her bed here in Tonopah. But the room was all different, much more detailed. In his other dream it had been more the big objects like the bed, dresser, and such that he made out. But this room was vivid.  
_  
The tan couch, with blue pillows, the baby's blanket which he seemed to be sitting on. The room seemed big too, as if seen through the eyes of a child. He saw picture frames on the bookshelves. Pictures of a family, a man, and woman, and a little blond haired girl with a pony tail, a little pig tailed blond toddler, and a baby. He could read some of the titles on the books. He looked up to see the woman that was in the photo leaning over him and smiling. She was pretty, kind, she seemed to speak, but he couldn't hear her voice, just a kind of humming sound instead, like a tone without the words. He could feel her touch his head though and then wiggled her finger next to him. He looked to see the baby from the photo giggling in one of those baby seats next to him on the little blanket.  
_  
He shifted, trying to understand what was going on.  
_  
The sound of a door opening and closing came next and the woman turned, when she did she was pulled up into the air. It was like the other dream, but the pain and terror on the woman's face was so much clearer. She looked at him and mouthed something, but again he couldn't hear what, but it looked like Alexandria. Then the woman screamed. He heard the scream clear as day and saw the little blond haired girl in the photo run into the room and stop dead in her tracks, staring at the woman in the air. The woman's clothes began to tear.  
_  
Sam felt like he wanted to scream, he struggled to wake up and shot up in the bed. Almost in that instant, a scream ripped through the still dark motel room. He turned his head to see Dean awake, propping himself up with his arms. Nic and Kris were also awake turning toward Alex's side of the bed. That was when Sam realized it was Alex screaming. Sam stared at the wall trying to figure out what was happening.

"Alex, Alex wake up!" Nic turned and grabbed her sister's arm, shaking her, trying to wake her up. She pinched her arm, hard, "Alex!"

Alex's eyes popped open and the screaming ceased. She looked around, scared, and her gaze came to rest on Nic's face. She let out a breath, trying to calm down. Nic looked over her shoulder at the guys, "I'm really sorry. She sometimes has these nightmares."

"It's okay, nightmares happen." Dean said, sitting up and looking over at the girl, then he glanced at Sam who seemed to have a somewhat blank look on his face. "Hey, Sammy, you okay?"

Sam finally actually looked at his brother, then over at the girls. He was trying to put it together. "Alex, were you having a dream about a woman being pulled off the ground and attacked in mid air?"

Alex sat up, and the girls looked at Sam with equal looks of shock on their faces. "Yeah. How did you know?" Alex asked carefully.

Sam then looked at Nic, remembering their conversation, "was that what happened to your mom?"

Dean now looked puzzled, he was clearly missing something, something kinda big. It sounded like their job they were here for. But what did the girls or their mom have to do with anything, and why was Sam talking about it? Kris was just staring at Sam now, her knees curled up to her chest, eyes wide, like all thought of sleeping had vanished from her mind right now.

Nic hesitated a moment, "yeah."

Sam practically jumped out of bed and over to the girls' bed. He looked at Alex, "I had the dream too. I woke up right before you screamed. She mouthed Alexandria when she was lifted up, before she screamed." He then looked at Nic, "then you, came home and into the room. Long ponytail, blue jeans, and a purple shirt, just a little girl. I was seeing it through Alex's eyes. And Kris was just a baby, sitting in one of those baby chairs next to Alex."

Sam didn't think he was smiling, but he was behaving awfully excited, maybe more than he should have for such a shocking moment, but it was just amazing to him how weird it all was. Dean was still processing everything, "Sammy, what the hell are you talking about?"

"And this all isn't completely insane freaky to you?" Alex said staring at Sam now, she'd pushed herself out of bed and was now sitting on her knees on top of the blankets.

"No, we grew up with weird stuff." Sam again turned to Nic, "My mom, I said she died in a fire. What I didn't say was that the fire started on the ceiling of my bedroom, and that my dad rushed in and saw her on the ceiling. And that's the same thing that happened to Jessica. I came home, sat back on the bed and there she was." He shook slightly, but kept his stare on Nic.

"Seriously?" Nic stared at him, knowing from the look in his eyes, he was serious. "Oh my..." She glanced at Alex, then Kris, and then Dean and back at Sam.

Kris looked like she was going to cry, staring at Sam as he'd told them about his mom and a girl named Jessica. Kris figured maybe a girlfriend or something. She almost lunged at Sam, tossing her arms around his shoulders and hugging him. Sam almost kind of chuckled and let his hands rest on Kris' back.

"Now let me get this all straight. Sam and Alex just had the same dream. A dream that was like the one you had, Sam, the other night, but about their mother, from when they were kids?" Dean had stood up during all this and had stepped the foot or so between the beds and now had his knees leaning into the mattress of the girls' bed.

Sam looked up at his brother, as did the girls, "yeah, that's right." He turned back again to the girls, desperate to get it out there 100, that they knew about the strange and supernatural. And in the back of his mind, he hoped maybe this meant that they wouldn't have to part ways just yet. "Did your dad start hunting down strange creatures and stuff after your mom died?"

"Pretty much, although he tried to only do it when it was really important." Alex answered, looking around at everyone. She wanted desperately for people who understood. For friends besides her sisters who she could do normal things with, like sing along in the car, and yet could also understand her world.

"Our dad is John Winchester. Do you guys know the name?" Sam asked, wondering if their fathers' paths had crossed, perhaps, somewhere along the way. Kris had kind of sat herself next to Sam, half hugging him still. He left an arm around her, enjoying the contact.

Nic shook her head, "but then Dad didn't ever take us with him, and he didn't talk names when he came home. But he mentioned on occasions, 'others' who he trusted, who were after the same things he was. Wakefield is our last name, if that means anything."

"Wait, Wakefield, is your dad Alexander Wakefield?" Dean asked, his excitement level had finally jumped up at least near the rest of them. Although, Nic seemed pretty calm to him. Sam and Alex seemed to be the two nearly bouncing out of their skin. And Kris was just smiling and kind of hanging onto Sam.

"Yeah, I was named after him and my mom." Alex said, eyes wide, the terror of her dream almost forgotten for the moment.

"Is that woman's death two days ago the reason you're here?" Dean asked letting himself sit down on the bed between Sam and Nic.

"Yeah, we were hoping to find the thing that did it, try and kill it somehow." Alex made a sort of stabbing motion. Even though she knew that wasn't how to kill it, since it couldn't even be seen.

"Do you know what it is? We've been trying to figure out if it's a spirit, or demon, or what." Dean looked between the girls, hopeful they might provide a clue. Sam looked at his brother, amazed that the only thing Dean seemed to be able to think of was the job. For this moment, Sam didn't care in the least about that, he was just happy to have found people he could share his truths with and who might also offer some vague notion of normalcy.

"We think it's a demon. I've never heard of a ghost, even the most malicious ones attacking in that way, and leaving animal like scratches and bites." Nic said, unbothered by Dean's desire for information. The more heads the better, she hoped maybe they could finally track this creature down and do to it, what it did to their mother. Dean nodded, and then caught the look Sam was giving him, and he cooled off the questions.

"Sorry, we were just having trouble coming up with stuff." Dean ran his hand through is hair and offered up a sheepish grin.

Nic waved it off. "It's cool, I understand."

"I never thought I'd find people like us, who weren't like middle aged, loner types who only wanted what you knew before they moved along." Alex looked at the guys, her gaze caught with Sam's and they sort of smiled at each other. It may have been classifiable as a 'stupid' grin, but they were both so excited, and hopeful at the moment, they didn't care. They were just enjoying sharing the moment. Kris kind of looked around at everyone, she looked hopeful for something, company maybe. She wasn't quite as excited though as Alex and Sam seemed to be.

"Me either. It's just been me and Dean for a few months now. I didn't think there was a chance there were more less normal people beside me out there going through the same stuff." Sam now was positive these girls were kindred spirits of sorts. That it wasn't just random chance that they found them on the side of the road.

"I've never felt normal in my life, but if you say so." Alex laughed, "we didn't exactly have a normal childhood. Once I was like five dad would go away for days on end telling us to keep safe. I knew how to hold a knife before I could tie my shoes."

"Me either, when I was nine and afraid of the thing in my closet my dad gave me a .45. I mean, I was nine." Sam shook his head and sort of laughed with Alex.

"That would have freaked me out, but then then our dad avoided guns for the most part. He preferred other methods. Of course, a gun would have been more normal than sword and dagger training at like eight years old." Alex shoved her hands between her knees, relaxing more now, and the cold of the air was starting to hit her now.

"Yeah, Dad only had one gun that he loaded with rock salt. And that only started after a coupled of years of him working mostly off charms and protection items and such." Kris remembered being about six when her father first came home with a gun as a part of his collection of hunting items.

"I remember that. My dad thought Xan was a little nuts actually. Which was saying something probably. Our dad's an ex-marine though, so guns are sort of second nature to him." Dean spoke up again.

"Did you know our dad?" Nic asked, looking at Dean now. Alex curled her legs up to her chest and tugged a blanket over them and looked at Nic and Dean, listening. Kris kind of rested her head on Sam's shoulder, and looked at Dean. Sam too, turned his attention to listen to Dean's answer.

"Yeah, a little. Met him a few times, smart guy. He mentioned 'his girls' a couple times, but he never got into his personal life. But my dad and I ran into him a few times. He and Dad had seemed to know each other from a while before I started hunting with him too. I was sorry to hear about his death. He seemed like a good guy. Knew a lot about rituals and monsters, and knew how to do some strange things I still don't fully understand." Dean remembered being impressed once with Alexander Wakefield's knowledge of all things paranormal. And that once they had been out in the middle of nowhere hunting a very angry spirit who was killing anyone who entered it's space. But Xan had told Dean and his dad to keep close and carried a strange satchel he'd somehow blessed or something like that. It kept the spirit from getting close enough to harm them, but allowed them to get close enough to it to get rid of it.

"That sounds like dad, he was a private kind of man. Always stressed the need to keep personal stuff, personal." Nic nodded, her mind drifting for a moment. "Sam said your dad was kind of unreachable, now I get it. He's out hunting something."

"Yeah," Dean nodded, and Sam exchanged a look with Nic, their earlier conversation taking on a whole new understanding for both of them. "so we're trying to help the cause, and do what our dad needs us to do to help him out, and hopefully help some other people along the way."


	6. Chapter 5

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 13, 2006, About 8am

Sam woke up slowly. After talking a little while longer, they'd all gone back to sleep. Sam stretched and looked at the clock, just after 8am. He glanced over to his left side to see that only Alex remained sleeping. He heard the shower running in the bathroom, and wondered if it was Dean, Nic, or Kris in there. Sam kind of needed to use the bathroom, and if it was Dean, then he didn't mind busting in on him. But he wasn't sure, because whoever wasn't in the shower, also wasn't in the room. Now he wondered where they may have gone. It was only a minute before his question was answered, Nic and Kris came through the front door of the motel room carrying a small box of donuts and coffee for five.

"Morning Sam." Nic spoke in a pretty normal volume, knowing her sister could sleep through almost anything the outside world dished out, plus everyone else was up, so she didn't much care if she woke Alex. Kris waved, the donuts in one hand so the other was free. She had one of those cute, little sweet smiles on her lips.

"Morning. I think you've officially become my personal angel." He laughed and looked at the donuts and coffee they set down on the table. "But first I'm going to use the bathroom."

Nic smiled, "Coffee and donuts, the universal offering for folks on the road." Sam laughed again before trying the bathroom door and finding, thankfully, that his brother hadn't bothered to lock it.

As he entered he announced himself, "it's just me Dean. Have to use the bathroom. Couldn't wait."

Dean poked his head out from behind the shower curtain, "see now, that's disappointing." He shook his head and then pulled it back behind the curtain, really not interested in watching his brother take a piss. However, he continued to talk, "three girls in the room, and you're the one who walks in while I'm showering."

"Would you really want one of them walking in on you in the shower?" Sam asked using the toilet.

"Yeah, why the hell not?" Dean scrubbed himself down with a little soap while he talked through the curtain.

"And you wouldn't be embarrassed?" Sometimes Sam was just amazed at his brother's audacity. He finished and dropped the seat and the lid and moved to the sink and washed his hands.

"No. I don't know about you Sammy, but I sure don't have anything to be embarrassed about in that department." Dean teased, poking his head out again, with one of those little smirks on his face. He'd heard the seat drop and knew it was 'safe'.

Sam rolled his eyes and dried his hands on a hand towel, "you know it wouldn't kill you to at least try to act like a human being once in a while."

"Oh please, don't tell me you haven't taken a look at one of those girls and thought about doing something 'fun' with them. You haven't gotten laid since Jessica died, so thinking about doing one of those hot little blonds in the other room I'd say is only human." Dean emphasized 'fun' and laughed lightly, disappearing behind the curtain again, and applying a little shampoo to his hair.

Sam stared at the shower a moment before reaching over and pushing the handle on the toilet. Then he turned to go back into the room. As he was leaving he heard Dean yelp. Sam smiled as he came back into the room. He noticed Alex had sat up and was stretching. She waved a hand at him while she yawned.

"Morning, Alex." He headed for the coffee and donuts, shifting his stuff off the second chair and sitting down in it at the table with Nic. Kris had sat herself down on the girls' bed with her donut and coffee, actually hers was just a hot chocolate, but it looked the same as everyone else's from the outside.

"Morning. Is he still in the shower? Cause I really gotta go, like now." Alex had wound up drinking a big glass of water after they all talked, before she went back to sleep, and she was feeling it now.

"Yeah, hopefully he won't be too long." Sam said as he bit into a donut and closed his eyes, enjoying the sweetness of the simple glazed.

"Arrrgh." Alex growled, "I can't wait." She declared standing up and opening the bathroom door. Kris got this kind of wide eyed look. She didn't think she'd ever have that kind of nerve to just walk into the bathroom when someone was showering.

"Alex, jeez." Nic said, looking for a moment like she was going to run over and stop Alex. Then she leaned back and decided she didn't care that much. Let Alex deal with whatever consequences of her actions.

"Are you gonna let her go in there?" Sam asked surprised.

"She's a big girl now. She can figure it out. If Dean gets pissed, then she'll have to deal. And if she sees more then she wanted to of him, then she'll have to deal. It's too damn early for me to be playing mommy right now." Nic sighed and looked at her coffee cup. She pulled the lid off, there was still a good quarter of a cup left, and she then kind of tossed it back like she was doing a shot.

Alex walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Dean heard the door and assumed it was Sam coming back to bitch at him, "that was really fucking funny, Sammy." Dean poked his head out and stopped talking.

"Sorry, not Sam. I'll just be a second." She lifted the lid on the toilet and tuned ready to pull her shorts down to pee.

"Whoa. Wait. Aren't you going to tell me to turn around or something?" Dean asked, and when Alex proceeded to slide her shorts down and sit, he covered his eyes, and then ducked back behind the curtain. This girl really was something else.

"Sorry, but I really had to pee, and, well, clearly privacy didn't matter so much." Alex said as she sat on the toilet, she smiled when he got all flustered at her. "Besides, I wouldn't have thought you to be such a prude."

Dean popped his head back out, but with his hand still over his eyes, "Hey, I'm not a prude of any kind. But you're a kid still."

"I'm 18, you said so your self last night. Besides, it's not like you really can see much when someone's on the toilet. You'd have to be looking pretty hard to get a glimpse of much." Alex stated, finishing and standing up. Had Dean actually been looking, it was true, he probably wouldn't have seen anything. She set the lid down and Dean spread his fingers apart to peek, when he saw she was safely clothed again he put his hand down. Alex washed her hands, smiling.

"Yeah, well, still. You really should be careful. There are guys out there who'd try and take advantage of a pretty girl like you." Dean grabbed at the towel on the near by rack, but he couldn't quite reach it and also keep himself hidden behind the curtain. Alex laughed at him and pulled the towel off dried her hands and then handed it to him before leaving.

Alex wandered back into the room and grabbed her donut and coffee set them on the night table and then flopped down on the bed with the TV remote.

"Alex, we may have to get going right away." Nic got up, she'd woken first and grabbed a shower already. Now she was starting to feel tired again. Kris looked at Nic, she didn't say anything, but was really hoping that they weren't just going to go get the car and never see Sam and Dean again. Kris had woken up while Nic was showering and slipped in after she'd finished.

"Well, we're not leaving yet, so until then." Alex turned on the TV and ignored any of her sister's further activity. Kris sighed a little, so quiet though only Alex noticed it, and kind of laid back and tuned out as much as she could beyond the TV. She just wasn't as good at that as Alex was.

Dean came out of the bathroom, clean, and dressed. He glanced at Alex, who had now tuned out the world beyond the TV, and then he fixed his stare on the coffee and donuts. Sam stood up when his brother came over to claim his food. "I'm gonna shower."

"Mmmm, donuts." Dean said, in a very 'Homer Simpson' sort of way. Sam shook his head and headed for the bathroom. Nic smiled at Dean's reaction and giggled. When she did he looked up at her with a sort of curious look, "What?"

"Nothing, just funny." She continued to smile, sitting across the table from him.

"I'm not behaving that bad." Dean bit into the donut and chewed as he asked a question. "Did you get these?"

"Yeah, I figured it was the least I could do. And I did about the same thing when I spotted them, so..." Nic didn't need to finish her statement as Dean chuckled lightly.

"So what do you know about this thing?" He took a long drink off his coffee and leaned back.

"Trying to watch TV here." Alex said without taking her eyes off the screen. Dean glanced over, then looked at Nic in time to catch her rolling her eyes at her sister.

Nic stood up and motioned Dean to come with. Dean hopped up, donut and coffee in hand and followed Nic outside. "It's her little escape from our reality. I have to let her have it, otherwise it just gets too insane to deal with."

Dean sort of nodded, he kind of understood he supposed. "Can I assume you know a little about this thing, maybe save me some hours of searching web sites and police records."

"Yeah, probably some anyway. Unfortunately I don't think I know enough. But it's hard to track this thing down. My dad was chasing it for 15 years basically. And in the past four years since his death, I haven't been able to actually go out and follow it, but I've been keeping tabs on it, so to speak." Nic said following him over to the Impala and leaning back on it's trunk, as Dean did.

"Does it kill the same way every time?" Dean finished his donut and licked his fingers clean. "Is there any pattern to where, when, or anything else about the victims that seems common?"

"Seems to. Always women, often married. Obviously all the for sure cases have witnesses, usually someone close to the woman, husbands, kids, other friends and relatives. But once my father started checking old files on strange deaths, things that were odd, but written off as animal attacks or something. He found ones that were single, and could be as many as three a year on average." Nic looked up at the sky toward the sun. She'd popped a pair of sunglasses on her face as they got outside. "Which I suppose in some ways it's not that many, but it's more than enough to be concerning. But because of that, it has been easy for them to get lost, there often isn't more than two in a given area in close enough time frames to make them trackable to police or anything."

Dean now sipped his coffee, mentally processing all the information.

"They happen all over, though there does seem to be a much greater number in North America than anywhere else in the world. But it's also harder getting access to international reports. My dad did always seem to have trouble tracking down records from other places. Sometimes all confined to a single city, sometimes all over the map." Nic shook her head, feeling a little frustrated with the lack of solid leads to follow just thinking about it. "There was one time in the late seventies it was possibly related to a string of women who died around Los Angeles over a couple years, and there didn't seem to be any others anywhere else. But just in the last year following it, it's had three, not including this woman, Marie, and the prior two were in Illinois and before that Florida, so kind of spread out."

"Is there an age range usually, like adult women, under a certain age or teenagers too?" Dean sipped his coffee quickly, and looked at his cup with some annoyance when it seemed to be empty.

"There were a couple odd cases he found, three of them I believe, that seemed similar in all respects, except that the victim was young, all three were under twenty. The three also seemed to be described as sweet girls who people seemed to think were just unlucky, good hearted sorts who's lives had dealt them bad hands or something. The only other possible pattern is that, at least by people who knew the victims, they were all described as especially kind, good natured sorts." Nic stared out at the street through dark sunglasses as she spoke, never turning once to glance at Dean.

"Okay, I think I need more coffee for this one. Sam's probably still showering, you want to go find a coffee shop with me? Where ever you got this stuff would be good." Dean had nodded along, even though Nic didn't seem to be paying any attention to him. It was a lot of information, but a lot of information that was hard to form into a solid theory.

"Sure, it's just two blocks down." Nic shifted her weight from leaning on the Impala to her feet again and started walking with Dean.

"Your dad must have had some kind of theories about it. Even demons usually have some kind of MO." Of course there was always the chance that Xan had been as vague and secretive about sharing his theories with his daughters as Dean's father seemed to be.

"He had a couple, such as some kind of feeding thing, or a procreation thing. But he had mostly rejected those ideas by the time he died. His big theory had become that there was something else all these women had in common, something not as obvious as a wedding ring or a few girls with bad luck in their pasts. Something to do with why they were targeted by the demon." Nic spoke softly so that passers by wouldn't notice the oddness of their topic of conversation.

"I'm sure Xan knew most of the places to dig into that kind of stuff. But we can take a shot at some web searches when we get back to the motel." Dean spotted the cafe and pulled open the door and walked in.

"Probably, I suppose we may as well work together on it since that's what we're both here for. My car should be here in couple hours or so. I called a tow earlier. The guy said probably before noon." Nic followed Dean inside and to the counter, pulling off her sunglasses as she walked in.

"You want another?" Dean stopped at the counter before ordering, and looked at Nic.

"Yeah, I think I might do for some more caffeine today." Nic was eying the larger cups now. She'd gotten the mediums before cause they looked easier to carry back.

"Two large coffees." Dean said to the boy at the counter, and slapped some cash down on the counter. He glanced then, again, at Nic, and noticed she looked like she was going to say something about him paying, "I got this one, don't worry about it. Fair trade off."

Nic raised an eyebrow, but said nothing to protest, just smiled, "thanks."

Dean smiled when their coffees came, and he handed her a cup. He had his polite moments. They headed back outside, and she slid her sunglasses back on as they started walking back toward the motel. "I don't know about you, but I think all the help we can get from each other on this one is a good idea."

Nic nodded, "that's true. The other thing my father found about it, that he never did understand, was that it seems to hang around for a few days near it's last kill, usually. It finds some maze of halls, or caves to hide out in, some kind of dark isolated place. He wasn't sure that it always did it, but often enough. He said he'd tracked it a couple times hoping for clues there. Never found any though, just sometimes earned himself some cuts and bruises from the demon. Who for whatever reason seemed more defensive than aggressive there. But that's what made my dad think there must be something it finds worth protecting there. Otherwise he thought it would just hide out till he went away. I don't know. Different demons have different quirks."

"I think I'd tend to agree with Xan. Unless he searched every inch of the place it hid and found nothing, then it might be hiding something there. We should see if there's any place around here like that." Dean spoke and then took a long drink off his coffee, closing his eyes a moment really savoring it. Nic nodded and drank her coffee as they walked back to the motel.


	7. Chapter 6

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 13, 2006, About 8:45 am

Sam came out of the bathroom, his hair a bit damp and tussled. Dressed and ready to follow Dean on whatever he was setting out to do today. He noticed the room was much emptier than before. Only Alex and Kris remained laying out on the girls' bed watching TV. "Hey, where did Nic and Dean go?"

"Don't know." Alex replied without ever taking her gaze off the television screen.

"They went out to talk about the demon." Kris looked at Sam when she answered, and smiled at him.

Sam nodded and crossed the room, about to glance out the window when the door opened and in walked Dean and Nic. He noticed the fresh coffees in their hands also. Dean sat down in one of the chairs and leaned back, sipping his coffee as soon as he walked in.

"So, what's the plan? I assume you have one." Sam asked his brother, sitting down in the other chair, and then noticing he'd just left Nic without a chair. But she didn't appear bothered as she sat herself down on the edge of the guys' bed.

"Nic told me what she knows, what her father's theories were. There's probably some research we can do, and I say we try and check out the crime scene before it gets too cold. Might be good to check out the family of the dead woman too. See if they have anything useful to say about her." Dean took a drink from his coffee then set the cup down and pulled out the computer bag and pulled out the laptop, kind of setting it down near Sam. "I'm thinking we check the scene out and then come back and do some research."

Sam kind of rolled his eyes at his brother and then turned focus to Nic. "Are you girls coming along or do you have to straighten out your car first?"

"The car should be here sometime before noon. The tow truck guy said he'd call once he was nearing town. I asked him just to drop the car at the gas station across the street. But one of us should be around to pay the guy and fill the car up. So we could do the research or something I guess." Nic really wanted to go talk to the family of this woman and find out whatever she could about her.

Sam could sort of tell she didn't really want to be left. "I could stay if you want and take care of research and your car if you girls want to go. I mean, this is kind of personal for you guys." He knew if this was the thing that killed his mother and Jessica, he'd definitely want to be out there asking questions and hunting it down.

"I could really use your assistance out there, Sammy." Dean said, giving no reason why, but he knew Sam was sometimes better at getting more information from people than he was. He supposed he was maybe a little abrasive, people seemed to talk to Sam really easily though. Dean would never admit that though, but he also knew enough to realize it for himself at least. He wasn't stupid after all.

"I can stay. I feel all grungy and still need a shower. I can search the internet and wait for the tow guy." Alex finally spoke up, snapping out of her little TV trance. She could hang out, eat, watch TV, and putter around the internet for whatever else while she looked for relevant information. Research was usually her preferred part of hunting the spookies anyway, it was just simpler.

Kris kind of glanced from the guys and Nic to Alex, "I'll maybe just stay too and help Alex. I'm not really sure what I'd say to the people anyway." Kris sometimes found herself at a loss for what to say to people like that, and, well, she kind of looked her age. She was only 16 and most didn't mistake her for being a lot older, though her sisters still got her a fake ID that said she was 21. Kris wasn't sure anyone really bought that. So, if they were going to say they were anything professional, which Nic and even Alex did sometimes, claiming to be reporters or something, Kris just didn't look the part, unless she could somehow pose as part of a high school, maybe college newspaper. She supposed people could buy her maybe as a baby faced 18 or 19.

The guys exchanged looks and then looked at the girls. Nic nodded and stood up, going to fish her and Alex's phones out of their bags. "Okay. I'll leave you my cell, and I'll take yours. Call if you need anything, and pay attention, cause I don't want you missing the call from the tow truck." She placed her phone squarely in Kris' hands, who she knew would probably be more aware and waiting for the call.

"I will, I promise." Alex sat up and looked at her sister in that way that told her she was honestly being serious. Nic set her car keys on the table where Alex and Kris could get to them easily, and slid Alex's phone into her coat pocket.

"Okay then, I say time's a wasting, let's go." Dean stood back up again ready to go. Sam stood up much slower than his brother, while Nic was already opening the front door. 


	8. Chapter 7

Best Western Inn  
May 13, 2006, 9:30 am

Sam, Dean, and Nic arrived at the hotel Marie Gabel had been staying at. The lobby had been a buzz with people still talking about, 'that poor woman in room 67.' The hotel was so busy with the people from the convention, which was holding some of it's smaller events in the Inn's reception room. Plus people from the Brown family reunion, as Marie Gabel had been, the staff really didn't notice who came and went. They couldn't even if they tried, so it was rather easy for the trio to walk right on in and up to the second floor.

Dean had located a maid's cart and managed to swipe a key card off it, unlock the room and then had Nic return the key while the maid was busy in room 80. Sam stayed outside in the hall, not too far from the room, but not too close, and tried to appear like he was just leaving a room and checking he had everything. He figured he could pull it off until the maid went into another room and came out again. Dean and Nic went inside to look around. The room was no longer taped up as a crime scene, but clearly maid service hadn't been in yet. The sheets were strewn about and all bloody. They looked around, there seemed to still be a few odd personal items that were left, such as her toothbrush and hair brush and some other items in her toiletries bag. A casual dress was also hanging in the closet. But it looked as though most of the stuff had been removed, probably either as evidence, or by her family.

"It looks like every other scene. Not much has ever turned up besides a lot of blood and questions." Nic didn't really think they'd find much here, but she went along because Dean had seemed insistent on checking anyway. She poked around though, figuring perhaps there was something to be gained just from being inside the space, since she hadn't gotten to walk into to many of these places herself. She'd only read a lot of notes her father had made about the ones he'd checked out.

"Yeah, it's starting to look that way. But we can still see if it's got the tell tale demon signs." Dean suggested, opening a couple more drawers before spotting a small sulfur remnant near the foot of the bed. "Here, sulfur."

Nic moved over to have a look and nodded, "you know, I haven't actually gotten to see it, just heard about it from my dad's notes." She knelt down next to Dean to look a little closer. Even if it didn't really tell them anything other than confirming what they had already figured, that it was a demon, she wanted to have a look at it for herself.

After looking at the little sulfur remnant and glancing for others, they peeked out the door and Sam motioned it was safe for them to slip out. The maid was still in the same room as before. Once they started down the hall Nic made her first suggestion, "I say we seek out some of her family. I bet a lot of them are staying here, maybe check out the talk in the lobby and dinning room. See if we over hear anything."

The guys nodded and they walked into the little lobby where people were sitting all around, talking. Dean spotted a man and woman looking upset and heard the woman say, "I still can't believe she's gone. My little Marie."

Dean glanced at Sam and nodded toward them. He'd come prepared. He had an FBI ID, he'd claim they got involved because they suspected a serial killer. He'd checked the police statements before coming to town and the husband had been so shocked all he'd managed to say was that someone attacked his wife, but he didn't get a good look at them. "Hello, are you the family of Marie Gabel? I'm Agent Smith, this is my partner Agent Jones, of the FBI."

"Yes, I'm her mother, Margaret. This is my brother, Daniel. Why is the FBI interested in my daughter?" She asked, wiping her eyes with a tissue the man handed her.

"Well, there have been several cases that sounded like your daughter's, and the bureau is concerned that we may be looking at a serial killer. So we are here to look into it." Dean spoke without missing a beat. Sam stood by silent, hoping that he wouldn't have to jump in and soothe any angry, grieving relatives if Dean rubbed them the wrong way. "I wondered if you could tell me a little about your daughter. It would help in determining if she fits the profile we're building."

"I already said all I can say to the local police, can't you just ask them." The woman shook her head, tears returning.

"I'm sorry, but my sister is still very upset. Marie was a lovely, caring, sweet young woman. But I'm afraid that's all we can tell you right now. Please, excuse us." The man lead the woman upstairs as she began sobbing, again.

Dean and Sam looked at each other, then turned to realize Nic had vanished. "Where did she go?" Sam looked at his brother, and then around the room.

"I don't know, you were the one just standing there." Dean looked a little amused, then annoyed when he spotted her in the dinning area talking to some guy. And at least from here she looked like she was flirting. "She's flirting with some guy in the dining room. What the hell."

Sam found where his brother was looking, and was a little surprised. She did look like she was flirting, and it made him wonder what she was up to. They were supposed to be working on this demon thing, and she hadn't seemed the type to just blow it off, especially since she had a personal stake in this demon. Sam figured she had an angle on something. Then Sam noticed Dean was walking off toward where Nic was, and hurried after him. Dean was about ready to just ask what the hell she was doing, but then he stopped when he got close enough to hear the conversation.

"So, your sister was basically the picture of a good girl. That's such a shame. There's so few truly good people out there anymore. I heard someone say once 'only the good die young'. It seems sadly true sometimes." Nic said to the young man, who was round about her age. She was trying to get a little information while just seeming like a friendly stranger.

"Yeah, you may be right about that. Marie was one of the good ones. She and Charlie just married about a year and a half ago. College sweet hearts. He was her first love. She was always involved in community service and in high school and college spoke to teens about abstinence and saying no to drugs and alcohol. And she and her husband were talking about having one baby of their own, and then adopting children. She was completely self less. I've never known anyone else like her. And now she's just gone. It's not fair, it doesn't make sense." The young man said, sniffling, and trying to hold back the tears.

Sam looked at Dean and poked him. He smiled at his older brother with a look that said, 'see, she's helpful.' "Apparently she decided your plan wasn't very good and went with her own." He whispered to Dean. Dean just gave him a sort of dirty look. "And try and not look like someone just smacked you, would ya?"

Dean gave him a nastier look, "shut up."

"I'm so sorry." Nic gently touched the guy's arm, "it's so sad. I guess at least everyone got to spend a little bit of time with her before..."

"Yeah, we had a good long talk with my other sister, and our cousins yesterday. I'll always remember it as my last memory of her. So vibrant and happy. At least she knew she was loved, and she'll be with me forever, in my heart. It's just still pretty raw. The reunion has turned into a funeral. We're burying her next week after the police finish their reports." He shook his head when a girl, maybe a few years older than Alex, came in.

"Hey, Johnny, mom could really use us upstairs right now." The girl said gently, trying to give Nic a little smile.

"Okay. It was nice meeting you, Nicki." He fished in his pockets and pulled out a card. "If you're gonna be in town a few more days, I'd like to talk again. My cell number in on there. Thanks for listening."

"Sure, I'll try and give you a call before I have to leave." She waved and gave him a gentle smile as he left with his sister. Nic then let her gaze land on the guys who were looking a little surprised. She stood and walked by them, when they didn't follow right away she said, "don't just stand there, people will start to wonder what you're up to."

After they all exited the hotel and got to the car Sam spoke up, "you got something didn't you?"

"Well, I got more than you guys and your fake badges probably got. Those things never endear people like that to talk to you." Nic said getting in the car. "So, where to now?"

Sam laughed and Dean looked more than a little bothered. He slammed the car door shut and pulled out. He wasn't sure where they were going next, but he wasn't going to say that now.

"What did you get, besides the guy's phone number? Are you really going to call him?" Sam asked, turning around in his seat, to look at her.

"His sister was like the perfect child and most loving person. Full of good deeds and compassion. She never slept with anyone except her husband. Never touched alcohol till she turned twenty-one, and even then she never had more than a single glass of wine at a celebration. Basically one of those people you wonder if they even exist, they are so good. Which fits the last couple women who I've really been able to look into. And actually, my mother probably fit that mold also, at least close enough. Which was something my father started wondering about toward the end. It fits most of the victims he or I could find anything on. But there's still the why, if there is a why. But it seems like this demon is up to something, it has a purpose beyond just reaping havoc." Nic hadn't intended to ignore Sam's second question, but she had, just by way of getting wrapped up in trying to connect pieces.

Sam was still turned looking at her, and Nic could see Dean glancing at her in the rear view as she spoke. Sam waited a moment to see if she was going to say anything else and then spoke, "Your mom was like that?"

"Yeah, pretty much. She and my father were high school sweethearts, he was her only boyfriend. She was a light drinker, only at parties. She volunteered at a soup kitchen at least twice a month. She was the kind of mom who was happy to have all my friends over, and often helped them with their problems more than their own parents did." Nic leaned back and spoke fondly, sighing softly.

"I'm hungry." Dean declared and started looking for someplace to eat. 


	9. Chapter 8

Uncle Bob's Cafe  
May 13, About 11 am

Dean pulled up in front of a little cafe near downtown and got out without really looking at or waiting for either Sam or Nic. Sam rolled his eyes and got out more slowly and entered the cafe several paces behind Dean, with Nic right behind him. Dean picked himself a booth, sat down, and picked up a menu. "Chill, Dean, what's the big deal?"

Sam didn't get why Dean seemed so in a huff. Dean looked up as Sam sat down across from him and Nic stopped a few feet short of the table entirely. Then he looked right at Nic, "so, do you think you're better than us and our little fake badges?"

"I don't think I said that." Nic remained standing, and glanced at an empty near by table, debating eating alone.

"Yeah, but is that what you think?" Dean pressed on, giving Sam a dirty look when he felt his younger brother kick him under the table.

"No, but sometimes the whole flashing badges thing doesn't do any good. There are situations where you can get better results just approaching people as a friendly stranger." Nic pulled back a chair to sit down at the table.

"If you sit over there, I'm going to sit with you." Sam hoped she'd actually come and sit with them. But if she was going to avoid Dean, he'd join her. He looked across the table at his brother, trying to see what he was thinking now.

Dean let out an exasperated sort of sigh, "seriously? What are we five? You really need your own table?"

Thus far Nic had been pretty mellow, calm, and unbothered by any of what Dean had done or said. Now that he could sense some kind of possible annoyance on her part, he had to push her. Sam hoped this wouldn't turn into something bad. Nic turned to look at Dean and fixed him with an icy sort of stare, "I'm just trying to give you your space, because you obviously need it right now. And, hello, drama queen anyone?"

Dean's eyes widened a little, almost surprised at the intensity with which she stared him down. Up till now, even when she was fighting with her sister she'd seemed passive, and almost weak. She waved her hand at everything said it was okay and looked the other way, but she wasn't doing that now. "Okay, sorry. I'll try and be a grown up if you will, and just sit over here."

Nic said nothing, just stood up and moved, sitting down next to Sam. When she did, she could hear Sam breathe a little sigh of relief that their little 'tiff' resolved its self quickly. Sam leaned in, about to apologize again for Dean, Nic waved it off, as usual.

"See, that. Why do you do that?" Dean suddenly broke in. "I know I'm not one for talking about feelings, but when I'm upset, you know about it. But you, you just wave everything off, don't you?"

"I don't like making mountains out of mole hills, that's all. Can we just eat now?" Nic quickly moved the subject and picked up a menu. Sam glanced at Nic and then exchanged curious glances with Dean.


	10. Chapter 9

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 13, 2006, Noon-ish 

When they pulled into the parking lot, Nic jumped out quickly with a smile on her face. Her car was sitting in the lot next to where Dean had pulled the Impala in. She walked to the front of her car, looked at it and then leaned over the hood, and hugged the car. Sam looked a little confused, but Dean chuckled, it was actually pretty cute, he thought. She hadn't talked much over lunch. He and Sam had to carry the conversation, talking mostly small talk. Toward the end Dean had brought up what to look into next, and mentioned wanting to look into the crime scene photos and such.

"Okay, I like her now. She's cool." Dean walked over to Sam and smirked. Any girl who'd hug her car was okay. Sam couldn't help a little laugh.

They headed into the motel room to find Alex and Kris sitting on the bed, Alex had the laptop in front of her. The TV was on, despite the fact she appeared to have head phones on and was bouncing a bit to some tune, and Kris actually had a guitar in her lap kind of strumming. There was also a bag of Doritos, Oreos, and a half eaten pizza on the bed with them. When the guys and Nic walked in, Kris set aside her guitar. Alex glanced at them, and pulled her headphones off. Her hair was still damp from showering, and she seemed to be wearing nothing but a tee shirt and panties, which the guys got a pretty good look at when she shifted her legs. Purple with green trim. "Okay, I found something interesting. You know how dad could never seem to find cases beyond thirty or so years and very few beyond the US, well, it took some doing, and translating a site that was in Russian, but I found more, a lot more actually. Records of unexplained and strange 'animal' attacks going back to like the 15th century. All women, both married and single, and a variety of ages. The bodies all described the same way that dad did. There aren't tons, maybe every few years or so, with some clustered and some big gaps of even a decade in between. But there's definitely more."

"Seriously? What else?" Nic rushed over to the bed and sat next to her sister to look at the computer. The site was all in Russian, which Nic didn't really know, but Alex had taken a shine to European languages other than the Latin based ones. Some she only knew mildly, but she was pretty good with Russian and German. Nic could figure a few things, but those more 'common' Latin based languages had always been easier for her.

Kris shifted, she'd learned a little Latin, Spanish, in school, and had tried to take hold on some of the ones Alex seemed to know, but she just hadn't latched on. She was usually good with research, but this one had been Alex's thing. Kris supposed everyone had a skill base and languages just weren't in hers so much.

"Well, most of the records read pretty much like all the others that dad dug up, but there was one that sounded more detailed. It was a lone case in Vladivostok, Russia in 1721. The examiner noted that the cuts and bites didn't look like any animal he'd heard of, and that there was a marking on the bottom of her right foot. He didn't know what it meant, but believed it to be Sanskrit." Alex continued, glancing up at the guys who had walked over to the bed and were looking over the girls' shoulders. "There unfortunately was no note of what the marking looked like."

"I say we get a look at that woman's body, see if she has any markings on her foot or anywhere else. I doubt the funeral home is very crowded at night. We could sneak in take a camera with us, and take a close up look." Nic suggested, and was received by a nod from Alex, slightly surprised looks from the guys, and a crinkled up nose from Kris. Kris also wasn't good with dead things, well the actual bodies of dead people where they still looked like people and not bones.

"Uh, yeah, that would be a good idea." Dean managed to get out of his mouth after a moment. When Nic gave him a mischievous smile, he smiled back. This could end up being fun.

Sam looked much less certain than his brother and the girls but nodded, "okay, so what do we do until then?"

"Chill out." Alex said, flopping back on the bed and sticking her headphones back in her ears.

"Good idea." Dean smiled again and grabbed the half full bag of chips and then stood up only long enough to drop back onto the other bed.

"You guys can really rest before we're about to break into a funeral home to look at the brutalized body of a dead woman?" Sam was still in a little shock at the whole prospect. He wasn't fond of breaking and entering. And he really wasn't fond of dead bodies. So the two put together, kind of made him uneasy. He noticed that he wasn't the one cringing the most though, that was definitely Kris.

"Alex can rest before, during, or after just about anything." Nic was still staring at the computer screen. She was trying to see if she could dig up any other foreign sites that might have been beyond her father's scope of searching. He'd only latched onto the internet during the last couple years of his life, and even in 2000, there was a lot less to find out there, and a lot harder to find it than there was now.

"It's just a part of the magic of being Alex." Alex said with a laugh and grabbed at the Oreos. Dean chuckled again, any of his bad feelings from earlier pretty much forgotten. He'd decided he liked these girls, they seemed smart, funny, tough, daring, and pretty hot too.

Sam kind of grinned and shook his head, and then looked at Kris, "where'd the guitar come from?" He realized he hadn't seen it before, and didn't recall any guitar shaped bags that the girls had with them.

"We left them in the car, so when we got the car back, we got them back. We all play a bit." Kris smiled, almost blushed a little. She wasn't really one to toot her own horn, but the girls were all actually pretty good.


	11. Chapter 10

Tonopah Funeral Home  
Barely May 14, 2006, midnight

Nic had driven by earlier and taken a couple pictures of the building and mapped out an entry plan. There was a back entrance off an alleyway, that even in daylight was pretty obscured from any view. There were no surveillance devices anywhere around. It was pretty safe in and out if they could get the door open. Despite the number factor, they decided it best if they all went. And they went dressed to look like they were having a 'night out'. That way if anyone saw them in the alleyway or hanging about outside the funeral home they could just act a little drunk and pass it off as drunk people taking a short cut.

Sam and Dean pretty much tossed on non ripped jeans and a button down shirt with the top couple buttons left open. The girls wore snug jeans and cami tops with little jackets over them. They even made a point of leaving the motel around ten, and spent about an hour and a half in one of the bars. Dean and Sam even each ordered a beer. Nic had a shot of vodka and Alex managed to snag a few sips off both of the guys beers. Kris happily stuck with cranberry juice. Nic had said it was best that they at least make the story believable, so that if anyone asked questions, they had evidence to their story. She even made a point of choosing a bar that they would logically have to pass by the funeral home to get back to their motel. Sam had to admit she was pretty through, much more planned and thought out than he and Dean generally were.

When the street was clear, they slipped into the alleyway and to the funeral home's back door, Dean made pretty fast work of picking the lock on the door. It wasn't a very strong or complex lock. They walked in and turned on a flashlight Sam had stashed in his coat pocket. As suspected no security of any kind. But then who would break into a funeral home?

"Okay, no wasting time, find Marie Gabel's body and check her." Nic whispered and then moved into the back room where the bodies were kept. It was a small town and a small funeral home. Just a handful of drawers to check, and they were neatly labeled with a card that slid in and out.

"Here," Sam tapped the drawer on the end, the card read 'Gabels, Marie'. The others hurried over. Sam didn't really want to open it, but Nic quickly looked around and spotted a box of sterile gloves and snapped them on before gently pulling it open without further hesitation, and then pulled back the sheet that lay over the body. There were deep gashes all over her body and bite marks from something with a very large mouth full of sharp teeth. Sam almost gagged, and Alex turned away, a flood of memories of her mother's death rushed to mind. Kris kind of stepped behind Sam and 'hid' there, it was just not something she wanted to see. She felt like she could feel what Alex was feeling as she looked over at her sister and her hands kind of took hold of Sam's coat. Sam felt the hands on his coat and kind of looked over his shoulder at Kris. He gave her a soft smile and curled an arm around her, pulling her forward a little and into his side. His other hand went to her head and kind of let her know she could kind of hide if she wanted, and she did. Kris kind of tucked her face in Sam's shoulder and didn't look at what Nic was doing.

Alex crossed her arms around herself, getting a chill, she bit her lip to keep from crying. Dean looked at her, normally she seemed so tough and unfazed, she stood next to him so he stepped a little closer to the girl, and wrapped his arms around her. He felt her shudder a little against his chest and then bury her face in his shoulder. Sam noticed his brother's compassion toward Alex and smiled as much as he could muster right now. He'd stepped back from the body a few feet slowly, taking Kris with him. Sam didn't like dead bodies, but normally he could at least deal with seeing them. But this one was just gruesome, it turned his stomach.

Dean was able to look without cringing like his brother did, but even he had to admit, it was pretty nasty and he hoped this wouldn't take long. He didn't really want to hang around too much longer either. Nic sort of shuffled around the body, taking a close look, and some photos, of all the cuts and bruises. Then she moved to the right foot. This too surprised him about Nic. Somehow he would have thought if one of the girls could handle the gore it would have been Alex, but she was currently quivering in his arms, while Nic moved around the body with a kind of precision, as well as it seemed, some degree of mental detachment.

Nic looked closely, and there was indeed a small marking on the bottom of Marie's right foot. It was just along the arch, and almost blended into the natural creases of the foot. "Amazing." She said out loud, though not really to anyone other than herself. She examined it a moment, and then pulled out her camera again to take a few pictures. Dean glanced over at Sam now, they seemed to be sharing the same thought, at least by the expressions on their faces. The look was curiosity about Nic, and her clear fascination with the corpse.

Nic took a couple full body shots of the woman, and then put the camera back in her jacket pocket, carefully placed the sheet back over the woman, and gently slid the drawer back in. "Okay, let's go." She pulled off the gloves and slipped them into her jacket pocket, she'd dispose of them somewhere else, just as a precaution, and they glanced out and were back in the ally before anyone was the wiser.

Alex had remained latched onto Dean the entire time, still mentally picturing her mother instead of Marie Gabel laying on that shiny metal table. Outside it seemed a little odd to Dean, but not that odd. He kept both arms around Alex, as she pressed herself up against his side, her face still hidden in his shoulder, and now she had stretched her arms around his waist and held on for dear life. Sam glanced at them then at Nic, and Nic only now noticed her sister clinging to Dean. Kris had un-hidden her face when they exited, but she didn't move to get out from under Sam's arm. It was kind of cozy there and she found she liked it.

"Sorry, I can take her if you want." Nic moved over near Dean and sort of whispered to him.

He smiled gently and shook his head. "It's okay. I got her." Nic smiled back and nodded before allowing some space to fall in-between them as they headed for the end of the ally.

As they reached the end of the ally they noticed some people across the street, including a cop chatting with a couple guys outside a restaurant. Sam decided for appearances, of course, to slip his arm over Nic's shoulders too. He leaned in, and smiled at her lightly, "drunk bar goers right?" He laughed softly, admitting to his own mind anyway, that it felt pretty good to have a really gorgeous girl on each arm right now. Nic nodded and smiled, glancing quickly at the cop who appeared not to really notice them, and then back at Sam again. He waited till they were a little ways down the street and then had to ask, "how did you? Back there?"

"Masters in Biology remember. I actually had thought about medical school instead of, or after that for a while, but plans changed. I had a few anatomy classes, actually have dissected more than a few cadavers. Spent a year working in a morgue as part of an internship." Nic explained, keeping her voice low so only Sam and maybe Dean could hear her. Her eyes kept scanning the street as they walked.

Dean had heard her, and he glanced at her, looking a bit impressed. Or at least as impressed as Dean ever appeared to be. Sam hadn't taken his eyes off her while she spoke, sort of fascinated with her story, "wow, I could never do that. I just don't have the stomach for it. But that's pretty amazing." Kris didn't know how her sister did it either, she didn't think she could do that kind of thing, ever. She just didn't have the stomach for it.

Nic just shrugged, "a lot of people do it. And other people are able to do other things. Things I doubt I could ever do. Like I don't think I could ever make it through something like law school. It just seems too, I don't know what the right word is. Because medicine is technical and serious, but I guess, it's too open to interpretation. Too many uncertainties and technicalities. Getting a client off because of some loop hole, even if they really are the guilty party. I couldn't deal with that."

"True, but what you just did in there, was still pretty... wow." Sam wanted to impress upon her, and hopefully Dean too, how helpful it was. That she had a unique and useful skill neither he or his brother possessed.

"You were pretty on top of that. And fast, good work." Dean actually had to verbally admit that she was a help in there. It probably would have taken him a bit longer to find that mark. And he probably wouldn't have taken such careful photos either. And for as much as Dean was pretty comfortable with the whole dead body thing, he wouldn't have been able to lift and move and lean in so close to really look at the details how she did. She had a certain precision he probably lacked.

"Well, thanks guys." Nic smiled, feeling pretty good right now. They were working together, getting along, and most of all, she might have just found a significant clue to what killed her mother. 


	12. Chapter 11

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, 12:30 am

The group shuffled into their motel room, and Dean sat down on his bed with Alex still attached to his right side. Alex wiggled off her jacket without letting go of Dean and dropped it on the floor. Nic went right to the computer and booted it up. She wanted to get the photos dumped onto the computer right away. She then looked at everyone else, "I just need the light from the computer screen to do this, if everyone else wants to go to sleep."

"I napped too long this afternoon, I'm not that tired yet." Dean had leaned himself and Alex back against the wall with the pillows behind them. Alex only nodded kicking her shoes off, she had been getting drowsy on the walk back. She was still a little shaky though, she curled up against Dean, feeling safer with someone close. She thought if she could just keep close to someone, she might be able to fall asleep soon.

"I'm oddly tired actually." Sam pulled off his shoes and coat and sat back on the bed also. He looked at Alex next to him, "are you okay?"

Kris had let go of Sam when they got inside and she pulled off her shoes and went right for the bathroom to change into her pajamas. She just wanted to be warm and comfortable right now.

"Yeah, getting better. I just freaked back there. Too many memories I guess." Alex shrugged. She felt a little embarrassed that she so totally freaked out at the funeral home.

"It's okay, I understand what you mean." Sam gently rubbed her arm, and when he did he noticed her snuggle down more, sort of shifting a little. She looked about ready to fall asleep. He scooted down a little and stretched out, shifting slightly to his left side. He kept his hand on her arm and sort of curled up against her. He felt her wiggle a little, and then settle, getting comfortable, safely squeezed in-between the brothers.

Dean glanced next to him to see Alex finally looking relaxed. Her eyes closed, her right arm still locked across his stomach. Her left had curled in-between them, and she'd now rested her fingers over his brother's hand that laid upon her right arm. He also noticed Sam's eyelids start to flutter shut. Dean looked over at the other bed where Nic had pushed the lap top to the end of the bed and was laying on her stomach, legs bent at the knees, her feet rocking lightly in the air as she was transferring the images and started looking at the photos. She glanced over her shoulder, possibly feeling Dean's gaze on her. She smiled slightly, noticing that Sam and Alex both seemed to be drifting off already.

"Did you get them all transferred?" Dean spoke softly so as not to disturb the two falling asleep beside him.

"Yeah, sorry." Nic shook her head and sat up." I can turn this off now." She reached over and flipped off the lamp, assuming he might want to try and sleep too, especially with Alex still attached to him.

"Oh, no, that wasn't it. I was just curious." He didn't move to switch it on again though.

The bathroom door opened and Kris came back into the room in her pajamas, ready for bed. Nic turned to look at her youngest sister and smiled, "you alright, Krissie?"

Kris smiled softly, yawning then, looking a bit tired, "yeah, I just really want to curl up and sleep." She noticed Alex and Sam looked just about out, and kind of wished she could cuddle up with someone and stay warm. The other half of the bed that Nic was laying the wrong way on right now didn't look as inviting as the other.

Sam wasn't completely asleep yet and lifted his head, kind of seeing Kris looking back and forth. He shifted a little, pressing a little closer into Alex, who really was asleep already. "Want to join the party?" He half chuckled and smiled softly. Kris left her clothes from the evening on top of her bag and nodded, moving over to the bed that was getting ever fuller.

Sam was about to move and roll onto his back so he could try wrapping an arm around each girl, but Kris stopped him, "no, don't move, it's alright." She laid down next to him, wiggling her toes so they found a way under the comforter scrunched up at the foot of the bed. She kind of pressed her body against Sam's back and let her hand softly lay on his side. She was a little tentative in the way she touched him, but she cuddled up.

"Night, Kris." Sam's arm that was kind of between himself and Alex curled around his own stomach and his hand sought Kris'. He gave her hand a little squeeze when he found it and let his hand rest over hers. She was a little young, and very sweet, which maybe actually made things easier for Sam. He could just keep her close and try and protect her.

"Night." Kris said softly, finding Sam's big, warm hand over hers very nice. She felt like it wouldn't be long before she found sleep.

Nic had already returned to laying on her stomach and glanced again at Dean as Kris settled onto the other bed with Sam, Alex, and Dean. "The pictures are pretty clear. Lots of detail. The scratches are incredible. Deep, but not too deep. Almost like the demon was being careful when it made these. It didn't want the victim to bleed to death before it was finished. Their sole purpose is probably simply to inflict pain, torment. Everything this demon does is about causing pain, tormenting, breaking the person."

Dean almost laughed, not because any of what she said was actually funny to him, but just that she actually talked more about the case than he did. Nic smiled and turned her attention back to her computer. He actually sort of wanted to get to know Nic better. She seemed genuinely interesting, and her performance today on the job, even at the Hotel, had definitely caught his attention and made him more than a little curious about her. And now he sat with her little sister curled up asleep, with her head on his shoulder. He thought he needed to, and should get to know more about these girls, and right now seemed like a good opportunity to dig in a little with Nic. Plus this demon they were all after had some kind of history with the girls' family, so for that reason alone knowing something about them might be useful.

"Will she wake up if I try and slide out?" Dean asked still speaking softly. Nic looked over at him again with a, 'what did you say?' sort of look on her face, so he repeated himself. "Will she wake up if I try and slide out?"

"Probably not, she's a pretty heavy sleeper. Usually takes a nightmare to wake her." Nic half way smirked, and half looked very serious.

Dean carefully slid out from Alex's grasp. Not feeling too badly about leaving her, since she still had Sam to 'protect' her. She didn't wake, just shifted, leaning into Sam more, seeking the comfort of someone near. Dean actually sort of smiled at it before sitting down on the other bed with Nic. He looked over the top of her head at the screen. She'd zoomed in on a close up of some of the scratches. He figured he'd start in easy, talk a little shop first to warm her up and then try and get more personal. "Have you looked at the mark yet?"

Nic clicked a few times on the screen, "no, I'll pull it up." Soon an image of the woman's foot was on screen. Nic zoomed in again on the mark, Dean leaned in more to look closer. It may have looked like an odd scene, the two of them, but neither of them seemed to even notice. He'd placed a hand on either side of her body to hold himself up, and leaned over, his chin just above her head now, he was almost half laying on top of her.

"Is that it?" He shifted so he could point with a free hand. It was now noticeable to her the position they were both in, so she scooted over to make more room. He smiled when she did, and laid down next to her, on his stomach like she was.

"That's it." She now really focused on it, on trying to recognize it.

"Any ideas what it is? Cause I have no idea." Dean too was staring at the image on the screen trying to make something click in his head to tell him what it was.

"I think it might be a word or something like that." Nic spoke after a few moments of them both staring at it in silence.

"A word?" The concept swirled around a moment. It could be some foreign language. I looked like it could be anyway, maybe something Asian or Middle Eastern.

"My dad never learned how to speak or read much of other languages besides Latin, not how he tried to get Alex, Kris, and I to learn. But he knew how to recognize a lot of them. I never learned this one, but I think it's Sanskrit, which is what Alex said that one report speculated." Nic looked at it critically. She didn't know much about Sanskrit, but she had looked some stuff up on the culture around it for her dad once for a case he was tailing some years ago.

"How many languages do you know?" Dean wondered, since it seemed the girls knew at least a few.

"Just the basic ones, French, Spanish, Italian and their root, Latin. And my French and Italian are pretty rusty. Alex is the language whiz." Nic then shifted the subject, "I wonder what it means." She reached in front of Dean to get to the mouse control and started clicking around.

She was good at that quick slip of the topic, which Dean kind of smiled at. "Is there someplace to look it up, like maybe a site that lists the Sanskrit alphabet?"

"Possibly, that's what I'm hoping for." She clicked and typed and started looking through the page. She sat up and turned back to the bedside table. Dean shifted and looked over his shoulder to see what she was doing. She stretched over his legs and pulled open the little draw on the night table. There was a small pad of paper and a pencil, she pulled off a sheet and dropped the pad back in the drawer and closed it. Then she laid back down. She clicked to the window with the image of the woman's foot and copied the marking onto the paper.

Nic and Dean both stared alternately between the paper and the screen trying to identify the marks as certain characters. "I think that first thing is an M, maybe." Dean pointed at the first character on the paper and one on the screen that looked kind of like it that was supposed to be an M when translated into their familiar alphabet. He kind of chuckled though, not really sure he was right, but trying not to give that away too much.

"I think you might be right." Nic wrote an M on the paper. They kept looking, debating with themselves and each other a little if certain characters lined up with others. They worked out what looked like it could be a word, Moksha. Now Nic searched the word to see if anything came up.

"It's actually a word. Try that link." Dean pointed at one that looked like a good source.

Nic clicked it, and she read the short entry out loud, softly. "Moksha refers, in general, to liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. It's a Hindu concept."

"But what does it have to do with the demon?" Dean wondered, scratching his head. He looked at Nic to see if she had any answers. She appeared to be turning it over in her mind also.

"It could be a sort of fucked up twist on the notion that the demon is using. It could have something to do with what the demon is doing to them." Nic sort of thought out loud, that sort of inner train of thought.

"Liberation from the cycle of birth and death, right? In Hindu that's where the soul no longer rebirths again, right. Maybe the demon is somehow taking the souls, thus preventing them from doing whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. I think there are folk stories of demons feeding on or stealing souls of good people to prevent them from doing the good they are supposed to do, in whatever form that's supposed to come in." It seemed to make sense to him anyway. It would be some twisted demonic version of the idea.

Nic looked at Dean for a moment, just sort of staring at him. She stared so long that Dean started to wonder if she thought it was stupid. He thought it made sense. "What? I think it makes sense. I might not be-"

Nic cut him off before he could speak any farther by grabbing his face with her right hand and kissing him full on the lips and then sat up as if it was nothing. "You're brilliant. It totally makes sense. It would be just like a demon to use a notion that is good like that and twist it for it's own vile purposes."

Dean was a little stunned, now he just sort of stared at her. She was definitely an odd one. "That does tend to be a popular thing amongst evil."

"Okay, so what do we do tomorrow?" Nic looked sort of revved up, and anxious. This was the first real clue in a while about this thing.

"I say we do like your dad, track down where it might be hiding, see if it's hiding something there." He turned back to the computer and started trying to find out about halls, caves, or tunnels in the area. As he did he felt her lay back down and watch what he was doing. Dean wasn't the most computer literate person, but he could punch words into search engines and check emails alright.

"Wow, that could take all day. Who knows how many of those old mining tunnels are even still accessible." Nic commented, reading over his shoulder about the Mines. There was even a Historic Mining Park.

"Yeah, well, I guess it's a good thing we don't have a lot else to do tomorrow, right." Dean then closed the windows on the computer and then let Nic shut it down. "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a little too amped to sleep right now."

"Definitely. I think I'm actually going to take a walk, try and relax a little." Nic was way over revved. Her mind was racing, hoping this would be the break that would get her closer to this demon, to finding how to kill it, and getting the answers she needed.

"Sounds good." He glanced at the clock which now read 1:15 am. He definitely needed to walk off some of this energy. Dean was nervous, but excited about finding these tunnels tomorrow, or rather, later today technically.

Nic sat up and slung her legs off the other side of the bed and stood up. She moved her laptop back into it's bag and looked at Dean who was already up and waiting by the door. 


	13. Chapter 12

Downtown Tonopah  
May 13, 2006, 1:20 am 

Dean and Nic walked down the street, she was quiet, but a little bouncy. "So you're up for the tunnels tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose it's worth checking out. My dad seemed to think there was something to it." Nic shoved her hands into the side pockets of her jacket.

"What made you decide to just up and follow your father's path after four years anyway? I mean why after four years?" Dean was curious, about her, her family. It wasn't like Xander Wakefield was someone he knew really well, but he'd met him a couple times. The guy was a good guy, really smart, but he never knew why he did this other than something happened in his family too.

"Well, I wanted to go to grad school, and after he died I became Alex and Kris' guardian, so I couldn't really just run off and hunt monsters. They had to finish high school. And when Alex did, and I finished grad school, it was time. I was going to leave Alex to go to college and keep an eye on Kris, but they apparently wanted along for the ride. Alex and Kris came up with a way for Kris to take it on the road and graduate early even, so I couldn't really say no. I didn't really want them to come, it's dangerous, and they both should go to college." Nic pulled her jacket closed. One might think, Nevada, hot, but it could be pretty cold at night. "But after a few weeks of bargaining and Kris' little pouty face at me, I gave up. I suppose in the long run, it's been nice not going it alone." She kind of shrugged though, like she'd have been happy going it alone.

"But what made you want to?" Dean walked close to her, but kept an inch or so of space between their arms. He generally cut himself off a bit from other people, and he was getting the impression maybe she did too, at least a bit, in her own way.

"Vengeance I suppose, a need to know what happened, why her." Nic shrugged, looking straight ahead of her. "Why do you do it?"

Dean nodded, "sort of the same reasons I guess. I want to know what happened to my mom. Plus, it's kind of just how my dad raised us. But it seemed like Xan, he never even actually talked much about you girls, other than my dad would ask 'how are the girls' and he'd nod and say you were good. It seemed like he didn't tell you about it much." Dean had always gotten that impression, but he could have been wrong.

"Actually he told us a good deal. And while it was safer at home than it is out hunting, it was never totally safe. It's not totally safe anywhere. That's why it took my dad till Alex was 5 to really start hunting. At that point she was old enough to communicate and dial a phone, she could run, hold a knife, she had a chance to defend herself. Kris was three, she wasn't quite as self sufficient, but she could dress herself and talk and my dad made sure she could dial the important phone numbers, like 911." Nic kind of laughed slightly and there was perhaps a twinge of a smile on her lips. "And I was 13 by then, and old enough to hold down the house on my own. I knew what was out there and how to fight it if it tried to come inside." Nic spoke of it all very calmly, like Dean did. It was just a fact of her life, the way it was. While it would be weird to most, it was normal to her.

"So, um..." Dean wasn't sure he should ask, but Alex had clearly had a reaction. And from the sounds of it the other night when Sam talked about dreaming their mother's death with Alex, he'd said he'd seen Nic come into the room as a child. Dean hadn't really even seen much of what happened to his mom, and it still haunted him, and he still could barely talk about it without choking on his words. "Was that like what happened to your mom? I mean, was she cut up like that?"

Nic nodded and glanced at him and back at the street. "Yeah, the exact placement of the scratches and bites varies a little, but yeah. She was ripped up like that, huge bite marks on her shoulders, actually maybe a little worse. Her whole body was bloody and bruised."

Dean noticed she didn't even flinch, though the look in her eyes seemed a little distant. "Do you know what it does? Sam said it almost seemed like a, a rape."

"Yeah, that was what it was. Her clothes were ripped off when I walked in, and by then, I had an idea what sex was, and that's what it was. If it's 'liberating' the souls of these woman, maybe it's a way of breaking their spirit before, so it's easier to take their souls." Nic was still thinking about the case, about how it all connected.

Dean was now honestly surprised at how easily she seemed to speak about something so horrible, if it were him, he'd be choking up right now. "How is it you're so together about that? Alex was ready to fall apart just seeing the body, and Kris, while I can't imagine she remembers much of it, couldn't even look. I know you studied biology and have done all that. But this was how your mom died. I mean, I know I come off all tough, but I don't talk much about my mom and," and there his voice caught and he didn't finish what he was saying. He wasn't trying to upset her, he just wondered.

"I don't know, I guess I just coped with it. I didn't have a lot of choice but to find a way to move on and not let it consume me. It was hard, sure, when I was a kid, and it's not like it doesn't make me sad and angry. And there are days were I think I'm just going to break down and cry and never be able to stop. But falling apart over it won't help me do what I need to do." Nic's voice was soft, but determined. She looked Dean right in the eyes, and there was a pain there that he could see, but she didn't seem to let it go beyond her eyes.

"And what's that?" Dean now looked right at her.

"Kill the demon. Make it feel the kind of pain it put my mom, and all the other women like her, through." It was then the emotion hit her voice, and Dean could hear the hint of anger lacing her words.

They walked in silence for a moment while Dean tried to figure what to say next. "So how is it you coped like that and your sisters didn't?"

"Kris doesn't remember much, she was still a baby. And Alex does, in her own ways. I guess the body was just something that she couldn't handle. But then somehow she manages to deal with dreaming about our mother's death all the time. I don't know that I could take that. Maybe reliving it at least a few times a year, often more often than that, ever since that night, maybe it's just enough that she can't take seeing a body all mangled like that. Me, I'm not forced to relive what I saw that day in my dreams." Nic spoke softly and slowly, and her walking took on a similar pace.

Dean slowed his own walking to keep in step with her. "She's been dreaming it ever since?"

"Yup. Always whenever someone new is killed, and often times just because. There's only one way I've managed to tell the difference. When I go to wake her when she's screaming, if her arms are out like this, " Nic lifts her arms out mostly straight at a shoulder level, and stretches her fingers out, and making a soft grasping motion with her hands. "Then that's when someone's died. It's what she was doing as a kid when it happened to our mom. She was like trying to reach her, to try and grab her."

"That's weird." Dean didn't know what else to say at the moment.

"Yeah, a bit. I figured it out when she was about four, about two years after our mom died. There was a correlation between her screaming in her sleep with her arms out and the deaths. Like last night, no arms out. So no one died, it was just her dreaming it again. So is dream sharing, or weird dreams a common thing for Sam?" Nic looked at him again, turning the conversation.

"Seems to be becoming a trend since his girlfriend died." They neared a bar, it was just about 1:30 am now. Dean decided he could use another drink, "Hey, buy you a drink before last call."

"That sounds like a good idea right now." Nic nodded and they headed into the bar.

"You want a shot like earlier, or do you want something else?" Dean walked up the the bar and the bartender came over. He smiled, "I'll have a beer, and whatever the lady wants."

"Vodka, a large one." Nic said decidedly. The bartender smiled at them and grabbed Dean a beer, and poured Nic a pretty good sized glass of vodka, probably a triple shot worth. Dean handed the guy the cash for the drinks, and a decent tip, then lead them over to a small table.

Dean took a good long drink from his beer and closed his eyes, letting himself relax. "So how often do you do this? Come to a bar, have a drink and relax?"

"Usually at least every couple weeks. Alex and Kris have really good fake IDs, so we find a decent club in town, have a couple drinks and dance all night long. Kris joins in the dancing, but usually not the drinking." Nic then took a good sip of her drink, put her elbow on the table, and rested her cheek on her hand.

Dean raised his eye brows and smiled, "hmm, that could be entertaining."

Nic just laughed. She looked around the bar a moment and then let her gaze come to rest on Dean. She looked at him for a long moment before she spoke, "You're the older one, yet it seems like Sam is always playing your keeper. How did that happen?"

"Well, according to him, I have no manners, or something like that, so he's always having to apologize for me and smooth over my 'abrasive' personality." Dean smirked and put an elbow on the table and rested his head just like Nic was doing, kind of mirroring her. "Sometimes I think he's just too serious. So we've spent a whole twenty four hours and then some together. Do you find me abrasive and lacking any manners?"

"Not completely, no." Nic smiled at him in a sort of teasing way, then brought her glass to her lips for another sip. "But I think you know, and maybe even enjoy, that you're able to rub people the wrong way. You really don't seem like you're overly concerned with what people think of you. Which can be a really good quality. Usually means you're secure with yourself, and you like who you are and don't see any reason or need to change just to make others more comfortable. You maybe figure people will either accept you as you are or screw them."

Dean stared at her a moment thinking she maybe had him fairly well pegged with that description, even if there were things missing. He was still trying to nail her down, and she already seemed to have deconstructed him more than most even tried. "Yeah, something like that. Am I really that transparent?" For a moment he almost looked worried.

"No, but I have spent a whole twenty four plus hours with you, and I majored in Psychology as an under grad, so maybe that helps me read people's mental states a little better." Nic took another drink and looked around the bar again.

"Okay, I suppose that makes sense." Dean lifted his beer and took a long, lingering drink from it. "I never had to be legally responsible for Sam. That couldn't have been easy, having to actually be the one solely responsible for Alex and Kris after your dad died. I watched over Sammy plenty, but for a couple days here and there, without my dad. Otherwise, it was both of us, I didn't have to totally do it alone. But you had two on one the other way around." Now he chuckled and took another gulp off his beer.

"That it wasn't. Alex's highly willful, but highly needy sometimes. But I'd actually gotten used to looking after her and Kris by the time my dad died and became legally responsible for them. Cause Dad would go off chasing something for a week or two, sometimes more at a time. And I was responsible for taking care of them and the house during that time." Nic scratched her neck and yawned.

"What about Kris? She seems a little more mellow, sweet." Dean smiled a little, he had noticed Kris was quieter than her sisters, sweet and kind of sensitive.

"Kris was always the easy one. She's not a fan of conflicts, so she doesn't tend to cause them. She's smart, pays attention, generally pretty quiet. She's a good girl." Nic smiled, looking after her sisters was never really easy, but Kris was easier, and she was ultimately glad to have them, and would do anything to keep them safe.

They both were silent for a minute, Nic was staring over toward the back wall where there hung a bunch of neon beer signs, a jukebox, and pay phone. The bartender called for 'last call' closing in 10 minutes. Dean looked at Nic, then where she was looking, then back at her. He stared at her a moment, hard, trying to see if she'd just turn and look at him. When she didn't, he stretched a finger out and poked her arm. She seemed to notice that and turned her gaze back toward him. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh," She giggled, "nothing really, just spacing out." She downed the last of her vodka and pushed the glass away with her fingers a little.

"I'm getting a little tired now too." He noticed she looked a little mellower than when they'd walked in. He felt a little mellower too. Dean lifted his bottle and noticed it was near gone, and then sat up straight before leaning the bottle to his lips, and tilting his whole body back downing it. "Wanna go?"

"Okay." Nic slid off her chair and stood up. Dean stood and they headed for the door. The bar had been nice and warm, but outside the cold air hit again. Nic stuck her hands in her pockets again and hugged her jacket around her body.

"Cold?" Dean felt the cold a little too, but probably not as much as her. He was wearing his leather jacket, all she had on was a little jacket that looked to be pretty thin. She nodded slightly and then shrugged. She was definitely a different breed of girl than the sort Dean picked up in random towns for an evening of fun. Those girls would shiver even in 70 degree weather just so he'd hug them. Nic seemed content to freeze all the way back. She wasn't even walking that close to him. He shook his head, unsure if this was some weird female mind game, or if she still wasn't sure she didn't hate him. Or maybe she was just that shut off.

"So, tomorrow morning, or whenever we get up, we'll head out to those tunnels and see if it's there, and if we can figure out if it's hiding something down there." Nic smiled at him a little, making him think that she at least, probably, didn't hate him.

"Yeah, that's the plan." Dean now shoved his own hands into his jacket pockets. He walked like that for about four steps before figuring 'screw it'. He pulled his left hand out and reached it over her shoulders and pulled her into him. She looked at him sort of puzzled like, but didn't look upset. "It's cold, okay."

He'd noticed that for the entire walk back to the motel earlier when Sam had had his arm over Nic, she didn't once do the same. She'd walked the whole time with her hands kept to herself, he wondered if she'd do the same now. For a moment she did, and then he actually felt her shiver, and apparently it was cold enough for her, she gave into the desire for warmth and slid her arm around his waist. And, nicely he thought, it wound up under his jacket, so he could really feel the heat off her body through his shirt.

"Can I ask exactly what happened to your dad anyway. My dad and I heard he died a few weeks after it happened. But the way it sounded, it was like he killed himself. That's what the story sounded like anyway. My dad even tried to investigate it, but he kind of got blocked at every turn, and then he got distracted with something else. And we never heard the real, whole story. But I find it hard to believe Xan would have killed himself. Especially now, knowing he had you girls." Dean asked after a moment.

"That was the story the cops came up with after deciding Kris, Alex, and I were no longer suspicious parties. He did stab himself, but it wasn't of his own will. He was being controlled by a dark witch of sorts who had evoked the powers of a demon or something like that. Maybe it was even a demon possessing someone, I'm not really sure. But whatever it was, she forced him to kill himself right in our living room. In front of us. She had taken his soul and had come to feed on ours. She feeds on negative energies, but something made her turn and leave as soon as she claimed his soul." Nic had never actually told that to anyone. After all, not many would even believe it.

"So, you three witnessed both your parents die?" Dean didn't feel any tension from her, but he tensed at the idea, and actually squeezed Nic a little tighter. When he did he felt her respond by gripping his body a little tighter. The fingers on her right hand, on his waist, pressed into his side a little harder, and her left hand, which had been resting on her own waist slid to his stomach, and her head leaned into him.

"Yeah, special ain't it." Now he could hear the dry sarcastic tone in the statement, masking a pain he knew she had to feel. She was pretty good at keeping it together, but there was something about her reactions that made him wonder if she was just one good scare away from a break down.


	14. Chapter 13

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, 2:05 am

Dean and Nic slipped back into the motel quietly. Kris, Sam, and Alex were still curled up together asleep. Sam and Alex still dressed in their jeans. Nic looked at them and moved to her sister, but Dean put a hand on her. "Don't wake her."

"Okay, well then I'm gonna get her out of those jeans. They're comfortable enough out, but not for sleeping. She complains every time she does." Nic carefully unbuttoned and unzipped her sister's jeans and slid them off, revealing those same purple with green trim underwear the guys had gotten a glimpse of earlier that day. She then carefully tugged at the blanket that was scrunched at the end of the bed under Alex and Sam's feet, the one that Kris had actually wiggled her toes underneath, and pulled it up over them.

"You're pretty good at that. You could take Sam's off, I'm pretty sure he wears underwear." Dean laughed quietly.

Nic smiled, "I don't think I know him quite well enough for that. Besides, guys jeans are always looser and baggier than girls are. Which is a good thing. Guys in really tight jeans creep me out." She made a face, stuck out her tongue, and giggled.

"Well, you could take mine off, I don't mind. And I promise I'm wearing underwear." Dean smirked, feeling pretty comfortable now making jokes with her.

"Careful what you say, I might not realize you're joking," She smiled back, looking a little bit mischievous.

"Who says I'm joking." Dean was curious if she had the nerve to take his dare. Nic looked at him a moment, and walked up close to him. Trying to see if he was going to back down. When he just looked her straight in the eyes with that little devilish grin on his face she knew she had to do it, just to teach him a lesson, that she shouldn't be underestimated, and she didn't scare that easy. She placed her hands on his hips then slid her hands along the waist of his jeans to the button. She paused just a moment, when he didn't flinch, she unbuttoned, unzipped, slid her hands back over his hips, her fingers dipping under his jeans, to his butt gave it a little squeeze and slipped his pants down. The squeeze definitely surprised him. He raised his eyebrows and stared at her a little amazed at her daring. "You're just full of little surprises aren't you."

She smirked now, turned and walked away, picking up her night clothes and heading toward the bathroom to change. It took Dean a moment to snap out of it enough to actually step out of his pants and toss them aside. He was suddenly a little over heated, and pulled off both his t-shirt and over shirt at the same time and tossed them aside too. He then sat and waited his turn to the bathroom. She emerged after a couple minutes in care bear pajama pants and a tank top. He slipped in after her and relieved himself. When he finally came back she was sitting on the floor by her bag shuffling stuff around. "That took a little while, didn't it?"

He could tell she was teasing him. Dean walked over and stopped right behind her as she stood up. "Well, what do you expect when you squeeze a guy's ass?" Two could definitely play this game. She giggled and scooted past him, he took the opportunity to reach out and just lightly tap her on her butt. Nic turned and pretended to look offended, then rolled her eyes, in a teasing sort of way, and laid down, ready to go to bed.

Dean smirked again, and then realized he really wasn't sure where he was supposed to be sleeping. There was probably enough room to slide back in next to Alex, but maybe Nic wouldn't mind sharing, she did have a whole half a bed to spare. "Sleep wherever you want." She could tell he was trying to figure out his options.

"Oh, okay." He was standing at the end of her bed and crawled on, quickly straddling her legs and smiled.

"Other than on me." Nic smiled and added, patting the side of his thigh where his dark blue boxer briefs ended and his skin began. He smiled, nicely, and then rolled over onto the open side of the bed and slid under the sheets. She shook her head and flipped off the light. 


	15. Chapter 14

The Douglas' Residence  
May 14, 2006, 5:28 am

Chely Douglas woke up and lifted her head to look at the clock next to her bed, and then dropped back onto her pillow. Her husband didn't even stir next to her. He had been having trouble sleeping lately and started taking sleeping pills. Which basically made him dead to the world for at least 6 hours. Chely was about to close her eyes again when she felt like she was being lifted off the bed. She turned her head, thinking she must be so tired she was hallucinating or something. But she realized she was actually hanging in mid air, she suddenly found herself on level with the top of her bedside lamp. She looked around quickly when her t-shirt was ripped into shreds and pulled off. It was then that she screamed, and she felt her panties rip from her body. Something sliced into the skin on her back. She felt something she couldn't see force its self on her and it bit into her arm. She screamed again, and again, feeling something distinctly inside her. It hurt like nothing else as she felt something ripping at her flesh, biting into her body. She didn't know how long it went on, she just heard the sound of her son scream and then it all went black. Chely's body was dropped back to the bed where her husband's eyes flew open. 


	16. Chapter 15

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, 5:30 am

Kris and Sam woke with a start as Alex started screaming in her sleep, her arms lifted away from her body in the air. Nic and Dean both sat up, and Nic quickly rolled out of bed and over to Alex. Sam and Nic both tried to shake Alex awake. Sam leaned into her, near her ear, "Alex!"

"Alex, wake up!" Nic then took her fingers and pinched Alex's arm, hard. Alex woke, and looked around, slowly lowering her arms. "Someone else is dead, aren't they?"

"Yeah, it wasn't mom's face tonight, it was a woman maybe about that age, dark hair." Alex shivered a little sitting up and curling her legs up to her chest. Dean had gotten up too and moved over to the bed and sat back in what was his spot the other night, with his legs crossed though, since Nic was sitting about where Alex's waist had been. He reached over and pulled the little huddled ball of Alex to him, and hugged her tight. Almost feeling bad for not having slept with her, even though she still probably would have woken up screaming. "I saw a whole different room, yellow bed spread, someone in the bed still, a kid screaming."

Sam sat up, he hadn't shared this dream, he wasn't sure what that meant, since he really didn't understand what these premonitions meant, but he wondered. He glanced over his shoulder at Kris, who looked tired and scared, and was leaning softly against his back. Her head resting a little on his shoulder. He reached a hand for her and softly rubbed her arm.

Nic let out a breath and let her body un-tense as she rubbed her sister's leg through the blanket. "Okay, I'm going to shower." Nic stood up and made for the bathroom when Alex nodded, she then quickly disappeared into the bathroom.

Sam and Dean glanced at each other and then at the shivering girl between them. Alex started to slide back down. The guys slid down too on either side of her. "I'm sorry I didn't sleep here with you." Dean whispered to her.

"It's okay. It wouldn't have changed anything." Alex said softly. Sam laid down a little more on his back and pulled Kris in close too when she shifted to lay back down as well. Kris stretched her arm across Sam's body, reaching for her sister and Alex looked over at her and clasped Kris' hand with one hand. Sam smiled a little at it, it was kind of a sweet action between sisters. He tentatively curled a hand around both theirs, but was ready to take it away if they found it an intrusion. But neither girl seemed to mind the touch.

"You want me to lay with you now?" Dean meant nothing self serving or sexual by this, he just wanted to try and relieve the distress she was clearly in right now. Alex looked back at Dean and nodded and snuggled into both Winchester brothers. They glanced at each other again over her head, and then all four of them closed their eyes to try and rest a little. 


	17. Chapter 16

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, 7 am

Sam woke up again. He hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep again. Pulling away from Alex, he got out of bed. Dean and Alex were still asleep, Sam looked at the clock and noticed an hour and a half had passed. Neither Kris or Nic were there, though the bathroom door was closed, so he assumed one of them was in there, but he wondered about the other. He moved to the window and peeked out, the Chevelle wasn't parked by the Impala anymore, which made him guess anyway, that Kris was probably in the bathroom, and Nic had gone somewhere. He wondered if she ran out for breakfast or to check out the crime scene.

In any case, Sam decided this was a good chance to take a shower whenever Kris was finished, soon he hoped. There wasn't any water running, so he hoped that meant she was finishing a shower, not just about to take one. He gathered a few things in preparation for a shower and looked up when the bathroom door opened, a little steam leaking out. Kris came out, her hair a little damp, dressed and ready for the day. He smiled at her, moving toward the bathroom, "morning. Did you sleep okay, aside from your sister waking up?"

Kris smiled up at Sam when he came close, "good morning. Yeah, I slept alright, did you?" She kind of absently let her night clothes drop in a little heap on the bed that had been the 'girls' bed.

"Alright anyway." Sam smiled, he had slept pretty well, actually, cuddled in between Kris and Alex. "How are you doing, generally?" He still didn't know much about Kris, mostly just that she seemed shy and smart, and a couple tid bits beyond that he'd gotten from her sisters.

"Okay, I guess. As good as could be in a case like this." Kris smiled softly, a little shy again. She wasn't a short girl, she was about average even verging on a little bit tall and seemingly still growing, but Sam was very tall, she definitely had to look up to look at him when he was standing so close. "It's kind of crazy and creepy. But it seems a little less crazy knowing we aren't the only kind of normal people out here. I guess we're not that normal, but relatively, you know. People who aren't grizzled middle aged guys, who don't shower for weeks, and probably sleep curled up with their shotguns every night." She kind of giggled at that, it was maybe an exaggeration, but it was how the few other 'hunters' the sisters had run across this past year had seemed.

Sam laughed softly at Kris' comment. "Yeah, that's probably how I'd picture them too." He actually wasn't sure that was too far off of what his father was either. He could almost see his dad sleeping with his shotgun. "I'm not sure we could be considered totally normal, but I know what you mean." He wasn't rushing to get to the shower, but it was definitely still on his mind right now. "Was Nic here when you got up?"

"Yeah, Nicki was on her way out when I woke up. I think she was going to drive around and see if she could find where ever that one last night happened." Kris had, perhaps, a very soft blush to her cheeks, she wasn't even sure why. Maybe it was just because Sam was really cute and seemed like a sweet guy.

Sam nodded and wondered if that was normal, for Nic to go out to things like that without her sisters. He knew they had grown up not completely unlike he and Dean, but they seemed to be a little more 'normal', especially Kris. There was something about her that still seemed very innocent and sheltered, despite what he knew she'd probably witnessed. He smiled at her and his hand softly touched her shoulder, "I'm gonna grab a shower, won't be long though. Don't disappear on me while I'm in there, okay?" He really wasn't sure what possessed him to say that, it just sort of came out of his mouth before he could reason why, or if she might think him odd for saying it.

Kris just smiled though and nodded, "I won't." She sat down on the empty bed as Sam closed the door to the bathroom. She flipped on the TV so that it was very quiet. She didn't want to wake Dean and Alex, she just wanted some distraction.

Alex woke next about half way into Sam's shower and she carefully slid out of Dean's sleeping arms. Smiling at her sister, "who's in the shower?" She actually asked quietly because she didn't want to wake Dean. Even though had it been just one of her sisters asleep, she'd have probably spoken in a normal voice.

"Sam is." Kris was sitting cross legged in the center of the empty bed with some kind of goofy Nickelodeon show on. She didn't normally watch it, but the only other things that seemed to be on at this hour were morning shows with news and such. And with what happened in the middle of the night, many of the local stations were covering that or at least running news crawls. She didn't want to see that right now, so she opted for children's programming.

Alex, again, didn't pay any mind to who was in the bathroom. Kris almost said something, but closed her mouth before any sound escaped her and just kind of rolled her eyes as Alex turned the knob. She let herself in, thankful that the door was in fact unlocked, because she really needed to go. "Hey Sam, just me, Alex. I need to use the bathroom."

"Okay." Sam was in the middle of rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. He finished rinsing, then asked a question he was now curious about. "Do you have dreams about other things? Or just about the deaths like your mom's?"

"Other things too, all kinds of things actually. I'd probably never have wondered about them if it weren't for these though. But the rest don't freak me out the same way, and I'm not always sure they're real, or I'm just dreaming really odd things. I sometimes also just get a sense of things, like vibes or something." Alex replied, totally un-self conscious.

"Is that what you meant when you said you knew we'd stop in time?" Sam was focused more now on the conversation, and less on his shower. He held the bar of soap, but it was mostly just sitting against his chest, rather than cleaning anything.

"Yeah, pretty much." She finished up and dropped the lid. "I bet Nic went to go check out the scene. She usually deals with that stuff herself. I can deal most of the time, and I don't know why she can handle the gore from these and I can't. It's just every time I look at a picture or anything of those women, all I can see is my mom's face, screaming." She shuddered a little thinking of it.

Sam was silent a moment, not sure what to say. If he hadn't been in the shower and naked, he'd put his arm around her, but because he was, he wasn't even looking at her. He decided he could at least change that. He poked his head out.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." Alex washed her hands and moved to leave.

"Wait. It's okay, you can say whatever you want. I know how hard it is to let go of the image. I had for a while, until it happened to my girlfriend, Jessica. Before then it was only the image I dreamed up from how my father described it really. I never had a completely clear image of what happened to my mom, I was too young. Now it's all clear and fresh. It's happened all over again." Sam felt himself shake a little. It was still hard to talk about, hard to even think about. "I just don't understand any of it. Why my family, why my mom, why Jess. And thinking if I could have stopped it happening to Jess." He felt the sting of tears behind his eyes, but fought to keep them from actually appearing.

Alex looked to be fighting the same urge, then she moved across the room again to the shower and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck. "Sometimes I don't think anyone knows what those dreams are like. Reliving it all again and again."

"You're going to get wet." Sam tightened his grip on the shower curtain, keeping things below his waist hidden.

"It's just water." Alex still hung from his neck, he held to the curtain with his left hand, but reached his right arm around her body. After a minute or two Alex finally loosened her grip and let go of him. Now he almost didn't want to let go though, but he did. "Thanks." She said softly, and then left, and Sam returned to washing.

Alex went looking for something to wear for after she got her turn at the shower, hopefully as soon as Sam was finished. Dean rolled over and lifted his head, noticing he was the only one in bed still. He saw Kris sitting on the other bed and a blonde head sitting on the floor. "Hey. Who's in the shower?" He said, pretty sure it was Alex on the floor when he sat up, rubbing his eyes a little.

"Hey. Sam is." Alex stood up with clothes for the day, and leaned against the wall. Kris nodded at what Alex said and smiled softly at Dean.

"Where's your sister?" It had taken him a moment, but he realized that they were short a person. The shower could be heard shutting off.

"Don't know. She probably went to check out that crime scene. Or at least see if she could find it." Alex shrugged, cringing slightly at the thought.

"She did." Kris nodded again, looking between Alex and Dean. She shifted a little and was feeling thirsty.

Dean nodded, smiling lightly at Kris and then looking a little more seriously at Alex. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I always am." Alex said with certainty. Sam came out of the bathroom, and Alex slipped right in.

Sam sat down on the other bed and smiled at Kris, "nice to see you."

Kris blushed a little and smiled, "thanks." She then looked at both brothers, "I'm going to grab something from the vending machines, anyone else want something. They both shook their heads and she nodded, getting up and slipping on a pair of shoes and grabbing some spare change before heading out the door.

Once the door closed behind Kris, Sam looked at his brother, "what do you think of them?"

"Aside from Alex's screaming waking me up," Dean started to joke, a half a chuckle getting out, and then stopped. "I like them. They're easy to get along with, I can actually kind of relate to them, and they're pretty helpful. Nic and I think we figured out what the thing on the foot means. It's a word, in Sanskrit."

"When did you figure that out?" Dean had fallen back to sleep with them this morning, hadn't he? Sam wondered when they did this.

"Last night. You guys fell asleep, she wasn't ready to sleep, and I wasn't really either. We spent a while looking at the image and finding what it was. And then we found where there's some tunnels that we should check out, and then we took a walk, had another drink at a bar and came back when the bar closed." Dean gave his brother the short, short version of his night with Nic. Dean had gone over with Sam yesterday at lunch a lot of what Nic had told him the other morning about the case, so Sam was mostly up to date.

"So I'm guessing we're going to go crawling through tunnels today." Sam then laid back across the girls' bed.

"Yup. Kris said Nic took off to that family Alex dreamed about this morning." Dean rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands.

"Yeah, her car is gone." Then the brothers were quiet a moment, when Sam sat up and spoke again, "I like them too. Somehow it all seems less weird and lonely with them around."

Dean nodded his agreement, refusing to verbally admit the feelings now. He'd had his sensitive moment. "Hopefully Nic'll come back with something, at least a confirmation perhaps of the marking."

"You were really nice to Alex last night." Sam wondered how Dean would respond to that observation.

"Yeah, why not? She's nice, she clearly was shaken. I guess watching both your parents die can do that to a person." Dean said softly, he scratched his leg and stretched.

"She saw them both?" Sam hadn't realized Alex had actually witnessed her father's death too.

"Yeah, they all did. Nic told me last night. I asked her what happened to Xan. She said he'd been controlled by something into stabbing himself in front of them." Dean shook his head, "I'm still not sure if Nic just copes better, or if she just doesn't let herself feel it."

"Gee, that doesn't sound like anyone else I know." Sam looked at his brother, and got a sort of eye roll look in return from Dean.

The shower turned off and Alex came out a moment later. She dropped her old clothes on her bag, now wearing jeans, a t-shirt with Oscar the Grouch on it, and purple socks. She sat down on the bed next to Dean who stood up and headed for the bathroom.

Sam looked at Alex for a moment before she looked back at him with a questioning look. "What? If you have something to say, just say it."

"Dean said that Nic said you guys witnessed your father die too." Sam spoke carefully, not wanting to push her farther than she was capable of going.

She took a breath and nodded. "Yeah, it seems to recur in my life. But I guess that's just how it is for some of us, right?"

Sam closed his eyes a second and nodded. "You... did you know it?"

"I dreamed he died, but not how. Just saw his face, lifeless. The night before he came home and... and that was that. Since then it's just us." Alex wasn't posturing now, there was nothing tough about her.

"I actually tried to run from my family for a while. I didn't see Dean or my dad for like two years while I was at school. Now it feels like I can't go back, like I'm not even allowed to have that sort of normalcy. So now Dean's all I've got, and the hope that our Dad can lead us to some answers about," Sam paused a moment, "everything."

Alex tried to relax now, laying down on the bed in what was Dean's spot. "Yeah, normal will never happen. Not really. But I try and do normal things even in strange situations. Like listening to music while I'm searching the internet for reports of weird deaths."

Sam nodded when the front door opened and Nic came in, as she was closing the door she got resistance and Kris smiled and slipped into the room too with a bottle of water and a little bag of crackers. At about the same time the shower shut off and Dean appeared, a moment later, in the bathroom doorway in a pair of black boxer briefs, towel drying his hair.

Nic moved toward her stuff, glancing around at everyone, noticing everyone seemed to have hair in various stages of air drying. "Good, you're all showered and ready to listen. I stopped by, played coffee bringer, talked to the kid. Little boy, poor kid. But he wanted his stuffed animal, neither he or his dad wanted to go get it. So I did, paused at the bedroom long enough to get a picture of her foot. It's got the mark I think." She was pulling out the computer as she spoke.

Dean sat down with Nic, as the computer came up, and she started transferring the file. Sam sat up and looked over her shoulder too. When the image opened, the mark on the foot was there, just like on the other woman. "Looks like we have a basis for a theory now, or at least part of one." Dean reached across Nic and grabbed the mouse and shifted both images to look at them next to each other. The placement was almost identical. The size and look of the word was perfectly matched.

"I'm hungry, can we eat before we do anything else?" Alex asked from the other bed, still laying down, now holding her stomach. She could hear it rumbling at her, and it probably didn't help that she could see out of the corner of her eye, and hear Kris munching on her snack.

"Sounds good to me." Dean said standing up and clapping his hands together. He left his damp towel on the bed and crossed the room to grab himself some jeans and a shirt. Sam rolled his eyes, which Dean didn't notice, and picked up his brother's towel and put it in the bathroom on the shower rod to dry out.


	18. Chapter 17

Uncle Bob's Cafe  
May 14, 2006, 8:15am 

The five of them pulled up in front of the same cafe as yesterday in Dean's Impala. They were heading out to the tunnels after they ate. Dean picked the same table as before, and sat down. Alex slid in the other side across from Dean, and Sam sat next to her, and Kris kind of squeezed herself in next to him. The two kind of glanced at each other smiling, and Sam looked fairly happy to be the 'meat' in this sandwich. Nic was lingering behind again, and dropped herself down next to Dean since that was the open spot.

"Are you guys into sports?" Alex asked before even looking at her menu. When she didn't have the audio distraction of television or music she tended to talk to create some kind of noise. Alex had an aversion to absolute silence, it made her uncomfortable.

"They're alright, but we didn't have a lot of time for sports as kids. My dad would occasionally listen to a ball game on the radio though." Dean shrugged, knowing that was the one 'guy' thing he really missed out on living the life he did. But he figured it was a worthy cause worth making the sacrifice for.

"I am a bit," Sam chimed in, "when I got to Stanford I started going to games, and my roommate was a big football fan. He liked the Raiders, and he watched a little basketball too, Warriors fan. So I sort of took to those. I wouldn't say I'm like a crazy fan, but I enjoyed it. And I always wanted to play soccer when I was in high school, didn't really get to though."

"That sucks, I love sports. Well, we all do. Probably a by product of being raised without a mom." Alex laughed a little, the funny and airy girl was back. "Can't say I ever got into baseball much though. Dad was a big 49ers fan, and he actually took us to a Warriors game when we were young once." Alex looked at her sisters for confirmation, and Nic and Kris nodded.

"Really, your dad still did normal stuff with you guys? Not just hunting kind of stuff?" Sam asked, wishing his dad could have at least just let him play soccer.

"Yeah, he said we couldn't be ruled by the fears of the night and unseen. That if you didn't live how you choose to, then it's not worth fighting all those things that go bump. That other life is why you fight. To make it so everyone, including yourself can at least have a little part of that." Nic put down her menu having decided what she wanted. Sam smiled at her, knowing that's exactly the kind of mindset he needed right now. Kris was just kind of looking from person to person as they talked with a soft little smile while she glanced over the menu.

"Yeah, I was on swim team, played basketball and soccer for a bit." Alex eyed her sister, "Nic danced, did gymnastics and was on the volleyball team and Kris played tennis. We did other things too as much as we could, like Kris was in choir and orchestra. Sometimes it varied year to year what we could fit in and manage. But we had to try." Kris kind of blushed a little and smiled when she noticed both Sam and Dean's gaze fall on her when Alex spoke of her.

"Which is probably why he never took us with him. He didn't want us to follow him unless we wanted to. And he always said we had to finish high school at least. But he also knew the things that were out there, wouldn't just ignore us because we weren't out hunting them. So he taught us how to stay safe and protect ourselves. So that hopefully we could live however we chose to." Nic looked up as a waitress came over. Dean kind of eyed her, she was a young, blond, and a bit busty.

"You folks ready to order?" The girl, who's name tag read 'Wendie', smiled.

"Yeah, I'll have the bacon, eggs, and sausage. And a cup of coffee." Dean ordered first not even glancing to see if anyone else was ready.

Wendie glanced at Nic, thinking she was with Dean probably, with an apologetic look. Nic smiled, hoping to relax the girl. "French toast, coffee, and orange juice, please."

Kris glanced around and Sam kind of nodded and gently nudged her to go ahead and order, that he'd wait. She smiled up at Wendie, "I'll have the scrambled eggs and hash browns, please." She paused a moment before recalling a drink, "and orange juice, thanks." She smiled a little shyly, holding her menu so that Wendie could take it away whenever was convenient.

Alex now took a quick look at the menu and motioned for Sam to go ahead and order. "I'll have waffles and coffee. Thanks." He smiled and handed his menu to the waitress after she'd collected Nic and Deans'.

"And I'll have the pancakes. And do you have milkshakes this early?" Alex asked since sometimes places did and sometimes not.

"Yeah, we do." Wendie nodded with a smile.

"Strawberry-Banana then. Please." Alex smiled brightly at the waitress and handed over her menu. The waitress smiled again jotting it down and headed off.

"Do you really have to leer at every big breasted waitress in every cafe we eat at?" Sam leaned in and said to Dean. Though it was kind of impossible to say anything to him without the girls hearing.

"It's called being a guy, Sammy, try it some time." Dean replied before he realized there were girls at the table and then he shrugged and hoped that it wouldn't get him slapped anyway. None of the girls smacked him, but Sam kicked him under the table, kinda hard. "Ow."

"Well, my guess is that Dean is usually just looking for a hook up. So actually, the leering thing is probably rather effective for his purposes. Because most girls who find that kind of a leer a turn on, are the ones who are also just looking to have sex and walk away. Which is probably what he's looking for in them. Thus the deal works out well for all parties." Nic laced her fingers atop the table and didn't turn her head when she could tell Dean had started staring at her.

"Hey, I'm not like some perverted dirt bag." Dean actually looked a little hurt by her assessment of him. Though it was not too far from true.

She now turned and looked at him. "I never said you were. That's not what any of what I said meant. But that is usually what you're out for right? A little, mostly anonymous, casual sex. I'd imagine any other kind is sort of impossible for you given your lifestyle."

Dean just nodded, not really knowing what else to say. But he suddenly felt just a touch out of place almost. Which was not a feeling Dean was generally familiar with, or at least wasn't one that bothered him, so he wondered why he was really noticing it right now. Sam actually was smiling at Nic, finding her little assessment of his brother a bit interesting.

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with a little sex just for the physical sensation of it." Alex added, then opened a straw and blew the wrapper off at her older sister. Kris sat silent in this conversation, just watching the others.

Nic turned picking up the wrapper. "Gee, thanks Alex." She crumpled it up and tossed it back, while the guys seemed to process their younger companion's statement.

"What music do you girls listen to when not forced to listen to Dean's crap?" Sam decided to do like Nic and alter the subject.

"We have kind of wide taste. I think we generally tend toward artists that at least have some hand in the making of their music, they don't just sing. Classic rock is cool, our dad listened to some of that stuff when we were growing up, so it's got good memories attached to it. But my preferred stuff is probably the kind of moody, alternative rock kind of stuff. Sarah McLachlan, Evanescence. She likes stuff like John Mayer, Everclear, Christina Aguilera second album." Alex pointed at Nic when she said 'she', while playing with her napkin, folding and refolding it, aimlessly. "Kris veers into the pop stuff, but even then it's usually the ones that are less industry packaged and seem to have some voice of their own." Alex said with and kind of firm nod.

"Cool." Sam nodded as their order arrived. It was fairly quiet in the cafe. Perhaps because most of the locals were busy rallied around their neighbor who last night was killed. He also gave Dean a 'look' noticing the kind of distasteful face Dean made regarding the music.

Kris noticed the kind of face Dean made and she kind of looked down at the table in front of her. She liked for people to like her and to at least not judge her for the things she liked and she worried that Dean had just judged her for her music tastes.

"Thanks," Nic and Sam both said to Wendie as she set their food and drinks down in front of each of them.

"Let me know if you need anything else." She smiled and went back to her work.

They ate and talked a little more casual chat about music, sports, and entertainment. Sam, Alex, and Nic kind of carried the conversation, Kris ate quietly mostly only nodding when someone mentioned her or looked at her. Dean was oddly quiet also, through most of it, feeling sort of like the odd one out, never really bothering to worry about being normal, till he was suddenly now surrounded by those who tried to maintain some normal in their lives. He actually was kind of withdrawn almost until they were done with breakfast and on the ride to the tunnels. That was when Nic talked more about the family from last night and what was there. Which Dean found much more up his alley.


	19. Chapter 18

Old Mining Tunnels  
May 14, Around 10am

Dean pulled the Impala off the road and onto a back dirt path, and then off that to near where there should be a way into some of the old mines. They got out and walked about thirty yards and there was an old mining entrance that was halfway boarded up, but not very well. Dean wiggled one of the boards and it dropped off, completely opening the entry way save for one board that crossed diagonally one of the top corners of the entryway.

"I say we split up, so we can cover more territory." Dean stepped in and flipped on a flashlight. He, Sam, Kris and Nic all carried one, only Alex didn't hold a flashlight of some kind.

"I guess that works, how should we," Sam makes a splitting motion with his hands, "split?"

"I'll go with one of you guys." Alex was standing nearest Sam, so she grabbed onto his arm. Sam glanced at her and smiled. She just kind of pulled Kris along with her and Kris didn't seem to resist that.

"Okay, guess you're with me, Nic." Dean looked at her. Nic didn't look like she was keen on the whole thing. "Or if you really don't like that I'll take Alex."

"I don't think we should split up." Nic looked around what she could see while she spoke, then looked at each of the guys and her sisters in succession. "Who knows how far these things go and in what directions."

"Yeah, so all the more reason to split up. Incase one group gets lost. Likely hood one group will find the way out is better and can find help or something." Dean thought the idea made sense, and even Sam didn't look that troubled by the notion. He didn't know why Nic seemed so set against splitting up.

"Fine, but I want you two to come with me, okay." Nic now focused her attention on her sisters. If the demon was lurking down here, she felt better knowing where her sisters were.

"I think they are stronger than you are Nic, if you're trying to protect us or something. Besides, haven't we spent enough time together on this trip." Alex was feeling connected to these guys already, and she felt safer with them around. Kris just kind of nodded and shrugged. She didn't want to get into an argument, but she didn't think it seemed like a big deal if she and Alex went with Sam.

"Alex." Nic was now trying to stare her sister down, fixing her with one of those 'angry parent' sort of looks. Kris flipped on her flashlight while her sisters seemed to be 'butting heads'.

Alex rolled her eyes and tugged on Sam's arm dragging him into the tunnels with her. "You guys go that way." Alex indicated a tunnel that branched from the main about six feet in from where they stood. Kris kind of gave an 'I'm sorry' look to Nic and followed after Alex and Sam.

"Alex." Nic had her hands on her hips, her voice sounding a little desperate now.

"Are you sure she's not going to be mad?" Sam had to catch his feet and hurry to keep from falling from the pace Alex was going.

"Of course she will be. But she'll just suppress it and take it out on me or someone else later." Alex was focused straight down the tunnel, one hand gripping Sam's wrist dragging him along.

"She seemed really worried though." Sam had caught the tone in her voice as it turned into something that sounded like desperation and fear.

"She's always worried." Alex slowed down a bit, finally, and started actually looking around at the tunnels. "Sometimes I just need a little time away from her. I'm sure you can appreciate that. And it's not like I'm alone, you're here, and Kris. Nic's just a bit of a control freak sometimes."

Sam had been called that himself once or twice before. "I get needing space, but it's not like this is a place to kick back and relax." The deeper into the tunnel they went, the more Sam felt uneasy.

"Sometimes it doesn't matter." Kris said softly and shrugged. She didn't really feel so much the need to get some time away from Nic, she just kind of got pulled in by Alex and didn't think it seemed like a big deal to go along. Although she was finding the further in they went, and the light from the opening of the tunnels vanished, she got more and more nervous.

Alex didn't let it show, and refused to turn around and suggest they find Nic and Dean, but she was starting to feel uneasy too. She tightened her grip on Sam's arm, that is until he wiggled his arm and she let go and looked at him. Before she could give him a look of, 'please, I'm scared' though, he grabbed her hand and laced his fingers with hers. She smiled a little crooked, her nerves were starting to show now, but having Sam to hang onto helped. Sam squeezed her hand, feeling a little better himself, knowing he wasn't alone. Kris was gripping Alex's other arm and was pressed in as close to her sister as she could be without tripping them both as they walked.

--  
Nic wasn't budging, so Dean took hold of her elbow and gave a little tug to try and get her moving since Kris, Alex, and Sam had already vanished into the darkness. She barely wobbled though. Dean rolled his eyes and decided more drastic means were needed to move her. So he walked behind her, wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted. After about five feet she wiggled enough he put her down. She gave him an annoyed look, and he stared back at her, "not a lot you can do now about it, so why don't we just try and do this, okay?"

Nic rolled her eyes, sighed, and started walking. Dean nodded and fell into step with her.

--  
Sam didn't know how long they'd been walking, but they were trying to keep track of any turns they made and anything vaguely distinctive. He really didn't want to get lost down here, especially if there really was a demon hiding out. This might not have been the time and place for in depth conversation, but Sam had to say something. And Alex was glad of it, cause the silence was driving her nuts. She'd already started humming to herself, which Sam had noticed. "I kind of got dragged into this whole deal, what made you want to go along by choice?"

"I guess I just have too many questions about what's happened to my parents. I know it was a demon who killed my mom, and sort of it's habits, but that's it. Don't even know what to do if we come up against it here. Not sure the best way to kill this sort of demon. My dad, I know who and what killed him, at least sort of, enough to give me a target for my pain and such. But I don't know where to find her. Plus she's got this soulless army of minions she now uses as her little puppets. It's what she did to our father, that's how she made him kill himself in front of us." Alex took a turn in the tunnel to the right, but everything looked just like a lot of rock and dirt.

Kris generally wasn't bothered by silence the way her sister was, but right now, she was glad for some talk or sound or anything that wasn't silence. Though she kind of frowned at the talk of their father. When Sam kind of looked at her like he was seeking her answer as well, she tried a kind of awkward smile. "I couldn't be left alone. And when Alex mentioned maybe we could go along with Nicki, I kind of liked that idea, of all of us staying together."

"What is it though, that killed your dad? I mean, it can't just be some person." Sam was a little curious.

"A witch who invoked the essence of a demon took it in by choice rather than actual possession, and then took on the power of the demon to twist the wills of people. Kind of like she was possessing the demon, at least that was Dad's theory. Dad tracked her down, but she took him. We haven't been able to find where she went or has been these last few years. She totally dropped off the radar." Alex spoke, keeping very close to Sam while Kris moved the light around looking, but nothing looked any different still.

"That's terrible." He wondered if they felt as cursed as he did. Like they were doomed to lose everyone they loved to some supernatural force.

"Our house seems to just be a popular target for the supernatural." Alex said somewhat glibly.

"You still live there? I mean until this trip?" Sam's dad had moved them out of their house after their mom died. And when he and Dean went back there, it wasn't easy, especially not for Dean.

"Yeah, of course, it's home." Alex responded as if it were not a big deal that both her parents had died there.

"We kind of thought of moving, after Dad, but we all agreed that there were too many good memories, that it was home and it was where we should always be able to call home." Kris added softly, still clinging to Alex's arm and the flashlight.

"And it doesn't bother you at all, it doesn't make the memories that much harder to deal with? Both your parents died unhappy deaths there." Sam realized after he said it that it might be upsetting. Which was the last thing he was going for, he was just curious.

"I think the memories would be just as bad anywhere else. And there's good memories there too. Besides, they weren't the only ones to die there, though my grandparents apparently went peacefully, of old age. I'm not sure, but I think they still lurk around the house. Their spirits I mean. It's kinda nice, since I never actually got to know them in life. They passed away before I was born. Nic only knew them a little." Alex walked and talked, and looked around. It was then her heart sank and she got this very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She turned to look at Sam, her eyes wide.

Sam felt it too, the demon was around somewhere near. He looked at Kris and Alex, then squeezed Alex's hand tight, and tugged on her arm to pull her in a little closer to him. "I feel it too." She nodded and then looked around for any signs that something was moving in there besides them.

Kris was hanging onto Alex's hand and to her arm with what she could of the hand that held the flashlight. She also tried to move the light to see if she could see anything. She was sharing the same bad feeling that Alex and Sam were having right now. She didn't like how dark this tunnel was, and it didn't seem like the flashlights she and Sam had were doing nearly enough right now.

--  
Walking in silence for a while, a silence that Nic, for now, was perfectly content with. Her mind busy scanning the walls of the tunnels for anything that could be a clue. Dean however was itching for some kind of distraction from just scanning the dirt on the walls. He noticed Nic still seemed tense. "Look, just breathe okay. Do you really think you can protect Alex and Kris that much better than Sam can? I mean, don't tell him, but I couldn't ask for anyone better watching my back."

Nic looked at him, "I'd just feel better knowing where they are. I'm sure Sam will do his best, it's just I'd feel better. And I am breathing."

"Really?" Dean raised an eye brow at her.

"Really." She still looked all tense. She turned back to her searching the darkness.

Dean watched her a moment and then walked up behind her, slowly, he wanted to surprise her a little, but not scare her half to death. Just enough of a surprise that she'd exhale properly. He came up just behind her, close enough that unless she really wasn't paying attention, she had to know he was there, and placed his fingers on her spine, just above where her jeans hit. She turned a bit looking at him, wondering what the hell he was doing. Dean shifted a little to compensate for her movement and pressed his fingers gently and started rubbing slowly up her spine to her neck. Which by the time he got to her neck, her eye lids were fluttering slightly, and she was definitely breathing. Her head tilted a little which encouraged him to keep at it a moment longer on her neck. He leaned in and whispered, "Now you're breathing."

"Yeah, okay." She sort of rolled her eyes, but Dean could see the twinge of a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"Just keep breathing. And I'm sure they'll be fine." Dean then moved to push forward down the tunnel.

--  
A low growling like noise echoed through the tunnel. Kris' other hand while clinging to her flashlight, which was now flickering, grabbed onto the arm of Sam's jacket. They all looked around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Something was near, but how near they weren't sure. Then they felt the air shift, and felt something upon them.

Sam jumped in pain as he felt something claw into his arm. "Ahhh!" Sam cried out, and he felt a strain on his hand, the hand that he held Alex's in.

"Sam! Don't let go of me!" Alex screamed as she felt something trying to grab her. She felt huge, rough, clawed hands grabbing her and pulling. Kris dropped her flashlight, debating if she should try and grab it, or just grab onto her sister with both hands. She opted for grabbing onto Alex with both hands.

"I won't let go." Sam squeezed Alex's hand as hard as he could. When Kris dropped the flashlight, he didn't even think about it, he dropped his too and grabbed for her and tried to hold onto both girls tightly.

Kris felt a little better feeling Sam grab hold of her, but she could feel the demon moving, trying once more to pull Alex away from them, at least that's how it seemed. Kris yelped when she felt something sharp rip across her arm.

"What do we do?! How do we get out?!" Alex looked around, having no idea how they were going to get out of this. She could feel the sting of blood seeping through the puncture the demon had just put in her side. She could also feel Sam's sleeve getting moist from the blood he was losing. And hearing her sister yelp like that made her want to get out of here, right now.

They heard the demon hiss and could feel it near them, and then suddenly the air shifted and it was gone. They could feel it, it raced away, quickly.

"What the hell?" Sam looked around, "where'd it go?"

Alex let go enough to pick up one of the flashlights, which was now working well again. However she did not let go of Sam's hand. "I don't know, but I want to find Nic and Dean and get out of here." Kris kind of let go and picked up the other flashlight.

"Good idea." Sam was breathing hard now, and could feel his arm burning from the attack. They started heading back the way they came, hoping they wouldn't take any wrong turns. He had taken hold of Kris' free hand also and wasn't going to let go of either girl until they were all safe.

--  
Meanwhile, Nic and Dean were getting deeper into the tunnels and Nic started noticing that there appeared to be something etched into the walls that likely was not made by 1800s era miners. "Dean, check this out."

Dean stepped over and shined his flashlight at the wall. "Those are weird."

"I think it's more Sanskrit. None are the one that is on the foot, but it could be some kind of ritual space." Nic moved farther in toward where the passage narrowed a good deal. It was then they thought they heard distant screams.

"Nic, you hear that?" Dean turned, looking around, trying to figure out where the screams had come from.

"Yeah, I can't make it out though." She spoke softly, turning to Dean. Dean was looking toward the tunnel they came in through. Nic pushed forward, she couldn't see what was beyond the narrowing of the tunnel, she moved toward it trying to see something with her flashlight light. But it wasn't doing much.

They heard a hiss in the distance, echo through the tunnels, and then a growling that grew louder. It was coming closer, quickly. Dean's eyes widened, he could tell it was coming toward them now, the sound was getting distinctly closer. "Nic, we gotta move. It's coming." Dean ran over to her in the narrowing and grabbed her arm. He turned to pull her back the way they came when he felt a strong, and foul feeling breath on him. Dean couldn't hide the fear that was now clearly on his face.

Nic turned and found herself face to face with the demon. Then it moved to strike Dean, and she shoved Dean. "Go!" She shouted, trying to push Dean past the demon.

"Nic, come on!" Dean couldn't see the demon, or where it was, he just knew it was close. Nic wasn't moving, she was staring at it. He moved to try and grab her again. "What are you looking at? Come on!" When he reached for her something kicked him, knocking him back into the wall.

"Just go!" Nic shouted, trying to move toward the narrowing again, she hoped the demon would focus on her. It grabbed at her when she turned her back, dragging it's claws across her back.

"Nic!" Dean pushed himself up and moved toward her again. When he shouted her name she spun around and stared at the demon again. When it swiped at her again she ducked and slipped back past it to Dean. He now was looking a little shocked, it almost seemed like she knew exactly where the demon was, and when and how to move to dodge it. "How?"

"Run!" Nic put her hands on his back and shoulder and pushed, and he started moving, and she followed. The demon hissed behind them and then growled. It sounded like it was moving fast, and parallel to them as they headed back down the tunnel.

There was a black spot ahead Nic hadn't noticed before, and now realized it was a connecting tunnel. The demon must have been masking things, like how she couldn't manage to see anything in the narrowed tunnel even though her flashlight was working fine until the demon arrived. As they got near she grabbed Dean's arm and pulled back trying to stop him. Dean stopped and looked at her like she was insane, "What?!"

Dean felt something fly in front of him, a shift of the air. Nic saw the demon over shoot a little and then start to turn. She then moved to run, pulling Dean along by the arm. He then felt something move again behind him and he pushed Nic to the wall. Nic was learning how it moved now, and Dean had actually done a good thing without realizing it. The demon again, passed them. She was noticing once it started moving, it moved fast, but didn't slow down as quickly. Or just wasn't good at anticipating moving humans. She saw it turn and come back at them. "Be ready." She whispered, he gave her a confused look. Then she tugged down on his arm, "duck and run."

Dean did as she said and felt something move over his head. "How do you?"

"Can we talk about this later?" Nic let go of his arm and ran.

"Dean! Nic!" Sam and Alex shouted in unison, Kris just looked scared. Nic and Dean heard them as they ran. They heard the demon hiss again now.

"Sam!" Dean shouted back, and spotted the light from their flashlight. They started to come toward them. "No, run, out. It's following us!"

Sam nodded and scrambled, still holding onto Alex and Kris and the three of them headed for the exit of the tunnels which, they hoped, would come into sight very soon. The demon hissed and from the sound, Dean feared it was right behind he and Nic again. Dean pulled out his gun, not really sure what he'd do with it, and knowing it wouldn't do much to hurt the demon but hoped maybe to scare it or startle it. "Where is it Nic?"

Nic looked, and turned as Dean did, "two o'clock."

Dean shot a round fast, and then started running again. As the demon hissed again, a more distressed hiss. "Did I get it?"

"You distracted it anyway." Nic turned and stumbled a little, Dean grabbed her though and put her on her feet quickly. "Thanks."

"Any time." They continued running and felt the demon behind them again, then they turned a curve in the tunnel and the light from outside could be seen and the demon screeched. Nic stopped and looked, and saw it recoil and flee back into it's darkness.

"Must hate daylight. Dad thought so." She said, but they both kept running anyway until they reached Sam, Kris, Alex, and the outside.

"It's hiding something, it didn't want us to go down that tunnel." Dean then noticed Sam, Kris, and Alex looked rather bloodied. "Shit. Sammy, you okay?"

"We'll live, but let's get out of here." Sam glanced at Alex and then Kris, both of whom were still at his sides, holding onto his hands tight. They walked as quickly as they could back to the car. Sam was halfway carrying Alex though by that time. She was holding her side, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Alex, Are you bleeding too?" Nic finally noticed that not all the blood was Sam's and Kris'. She'd been walking by Kris, kind of looking at the big cut down her arm.

Alex wasn't feeling the pain anymore, she looked. "I guess I forgot." She was feeling a little faint. "Can I just sit down?"

Nic rushed over to open the car door when she turned back around she noticed both Sam and Dean staring. "What?"

"Um, you're bleeding too." Sam helped Alex into the car and put a hand on Nic's back. Nic looked around her side to see there was a bit of blood on her back. Kris seemed a little shocked, and only when Sam pointed it out, noticed the blood all over her sister's back and the ripped fabric of her shirt.

"Oh, yeah. Maybe we should get moving." Sam nodded as Nic moved to slide in next to Alex, but realized Sam's arm was in the way.

"You can sit up front." Sam slid in, Alex wasn't letting go of his hand, and he was okay with that right now. Kris slid in after him and kind of curled up at his side.


	20. Chapter 19

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, Around 2pm

They got back to the motel, and Dean filled a bucket with some hot water to clean off the blood from his seats. Alex actually seemed to be losing the most blood, Nic and Sam helped her inside, with Kris following behind. "Okay, Alex, we need to get you cleaned up. Sam, do you guys have some first aid? If not, we have some stuff in one of the bags in the trunk."

"What bag?" Sam stood up after helping sit Alex on the bathroom floor.

"Purple duffel," Alex said holding her side still. Sam turned and hurried out. Then she looked at her sister, "I think the bleeding is slowing. I'll be fine." Kris had sat herself down on the floor with her sisters and was leaning into Alex.

"I know, but you still need it cleaned and bandaged." Nic tapped her sister's shoulder and Alex leaned forward and shifted so Nic could pull her shirt off. Alex then started pulling at her jeans button. The waist of the pants kept rubbing her wound and making it worse. Nic noticed and helped her pull them off.

When Sam came back with the bag Alex was sitting there in nothing but her underwear. He hesitated a moment and then knelt down when Nic made a motion to do so. "How can I help?"

"We all need to clean off, but Alex isn't really much for standing right now. So I'm gonna need help." Nic then paused a moment from her sister to notice Sam's arm and tugged it toward her. "Besides, you should get that cleaned too as soon as possible."

Kris knew she'd do her best to help, but whenever her sisters got hurt, she sometimes had trouble holding herself up once the immediate danger was past. She hadn't noticed her own pain in her arm for most of the ride, she was to busy seeing all the blood on Sam's arm, and Alex's sides, and Nic's bloodied back to think of her own arm. But now she was kind of holding it, realizing it really hurt.

"You want to stand in the shower with her, or run the bath?" Sam nodded at what Nic said about his arm, but wasn't too worried. Alex was the one who sort of looked ready to pass out. Although, she looked better than she had when they'd gotten in the car.

"I hate baths." Alex sort of complained, she hadn't taken a bath by choice since she was seven. The only exceptions were the time their shower head broke and the girls were forced to take baths for three days. And the time that she got so battered fighting someone possessed by a vengeful spirit that Nic had no choice but to put Alex in the bath tub to clean her up because she and Kris were having trouble trying to keep Alex on her feet.

"Okay," Sam didn't have a problem either way. He moved ready to lift Alex to her feet, when Nic pulled off her shirt, and stood up and slid off her jeans and socks.

"I don't need to get my clothes all wet, plus, apparently my back could use the rinse." She then moved to try and see in the mirror what her back looked like.

Sam stood and pulled off his jacket and shirt and then his pants too. He was wearing light blue boxer briefs. His arm had two big scratches across it, and it didn't appear it had quite stopped bleeding either. Nor had Nic's back, which she was currently running her fingers along. And Alex cringed as she did. It looked too much like the women who died. And on Nic, it looked way too much like their mother. Tears stung Alex's face now, she didn't even realize it until they streaked down her face. Sam reached over and wiped at them. They'd left clear trails as they cut through the dirt on Alex's face. "Come on, we need to clean up."

Kris had looked for a moment at her sister's back and then looked away, choosing to distract herself by pulling off her own shirt and jeans and shoes. Everything felt dirty and bloody and she wanted it off. She wasn't sure if she'd get a shower or just clean up over the sink, but her shirt sleeve was sticking to her from the blood.

Sam brushed his fingers down Nic's arm and she looked at him, distracted from her examination of the scratches on her own back. Nic then moved, and turned on the shower getting it to a temperature that was good and warm, but wouldn't hurt. Sam helped Alex to her feet, and provided her something to lean on. Kris stood up with them, looking around, wondering what she should do. "Can I help?" She asked softly.

Alex reached softly and gave Kris' hand a little squeeze. "We need to clean her up too."

"We do, you're next Kris." Nic hadn't forgotten at all that her other sister had a big cut down her arm, she was just focusing on one thing at a time. "I'm just not sure there's enough room for everyone." Nic wasn't sure four people could fit in that shower. Nic stepped first into the shower and she and Sam helped Alex into the shower.

Sam glanced at Kris just standing there in the center of the small motel bathroom, in nothing but her pink bra and panties. She looked scared and alone. He was holding onto Alex with both hands, so he nodded his head, hoping Kris would follow. He figured if she felt better being near everyone, she wasn't a big girl, she'd be able to squeeze in. Because she looked so sad there. Kris hesitated a moment until it seemed everyone was about to disappear behind the shower curtain and she hurried the few steps and climbed in. She just hoped Nic wouldn't think she was in the way.

Alex leaned into Sam and he kept her steady as Nic took a washcloth to Alex's side. "Ow!" Alex cringed and leaned away, but Nic turned her and continued. Nic saw Kris slip in the back and then kind of hide herself behind Sam at the back of the bathtub. Nic smiled at her sister, she didn't care if Kris was in here. Kris rarely got in the way of anything. Once Nic had washed out the wound she continued with the rest of Alex.

Dean finished with the car and came into the motel room and saw no one, but heard the shower on. He walked into the bathroom, his shirt dirty and a bit bloody, and feeling like he could use a shower, he looked over to see the curtain mostly closed, but could see Sam's back and Kris kind of huddled against it. "Um, having a party in there or something?" He chuckled coming over to the shower, he noticed Sam still had his underwear on, as did the girls.

Sam peeked out at Dean, "funny. We're cleaning Alex's wound. It looks pretty deep." Dean couldn't help but peer in, noticing the girls in their underwear. Alex's bra was green, and her underwear were a pale purple, which was almost as good as white. When he noticed this he averted his eyes to Nic, who's underwear were nearly matching blacks, except the panties were clearly cotton, and the bra wasn't, it looked a little smoother and silkier a fabric. Sam noticed where Dean was looking and elbowed him.

"Like you didn't at all?" Dean whispered soft enough he hoped he hadn't offended the ears of their youngest companion. He glanced at Kris and smiled, she kind of smiled back, seeming to have not noticed Dean's comment, or at least didn't seem to care. He then looked back to the older two girls, "need any help?"

"Clean towel if you can find one." Nic looked up and said, Alex was almost clean.

Dean washed his hands and forearms in the sink and then pulled out a few clean towels. "There's four clean towels."

"Good," Nic and Sam started helping Alex out, and Dean stood ready to wrap her in a towel. Nic stepped out with her sister. Alex was standing a little better now that she'd gotten cleaned off and refreshed a bit with the shower. Dean wrapped the towel around Alex. Nic started to help Alex dry off a little, patting down her back, and drying her hair off some.

Kris remained in the shower with Sam and he actually shifted her so he could clean the cut on her arm. He figured he was there, there was a wash cloth, and she needed it cleaned. "Here, I'll get this washed out for you." He smiled at Kris as she stepped under the water and let it rush over her. For a moment he had to remind himself that Kris was only 16 as the water ran over her, her light pink underwear clinging to her body in ways he knew he shouldn't look at. Sam focused himself on that cut on her arm and cleaning it out.

"You should probably clean that, Nic." Dean pointed at her back.

"I will, are you cut anywhere, or is all that just our blood?" She couldn't help but notice the red stains all over his shirt.

"I think they're all yours." He pulled his shirt off and turned around so Nic could see. However in moving, he noticed a soreness in his chest. He looked down to see a rather sizable bruise that was already turning five shades of green and purple. "It kicked me pretty good though."

Nic made a face when she saw the bruise. "That is bad. Sorry." She sort of felt bad now, as he'd gotten kicked trying to get hold of her. Sam was watching and listening now to Dean and Nic, as Kris washed her hair. Sam had cleaned out her cut and now had to focus on something outside the shower, though perhaps he should have been taking advantage of the shower also and washed himself off a little too.

"Wasn't your fault." Dean said simply. Then he glanced toward the shower, "hey, Sammy, you guys almost done? Cause I wouldn't mind getting clean too."

Sam realized the shower was running next to him, and it was barely hitting him at all. Kris smiled at him, as she'd been trying to leave him room to wash up also. Sam shook his head and focused again, "Sorry." He then turned to start washing off.

"Did you want me to try and clean that for you?" Kris asked kind of soft and shy. She was basically clean. "Or you want to do it yourself?"

"I can probably get it myself. If you're all clean you can get dry if you want." Sam wouldn't have minded, but he spoke the words before he stopped to think about how nice it might have been to have a sweet, pretty girl clean him up.

"Okay." Kris nodded, blushing and looking kind of nervous, perhaps flustered. She shifted and kind of scurried out of the shower.

Sam tried to say 'wait', but didn't. He hoped she didn't think he didn't want her to help him. Or that he wanted her to go. He sighed a little, moving to wash his hair a little now that he had the shower to himself for a bit.

"Why don't we get you dressed and comfortable." Nic was about to lead Alex to the other room, as Kris stepped out of the shower, looking for a towel, which Dean grabbed one off the stack of clean towels and handed it to her so she could wrap herself up. "Is your arm clean?" Nic looked over at Kris' arm.

Kris nodded as she moved toward the far side of the bathroom and squeezed her hair out over the sink and started to dry herself off. Her arm hurt, and was sore, but it was clean anyway.

"Um, you're still dripping wet, and not really cleaned off." Dean observed Nic's current state. She was dripping on the floor and just by that you could tell her state. The drips were dingy, tainted with dirt and blood.

She glanced at herself and the drips on the floor. Alex too looked at her sister and noticed again the scratches across her back. She then turned her head away quickly. "Please clean that up, Nicki." Kris looked too at Nic's back and cringed, slipping out into the main room. The bathroom was crowded and she felt in the way again, plus, she didn't want to look at her sister's back like that.

"I will Alex, but," Nic was about to try and get her out of the bathroom again.

"No, now. It's bad, it looks bad. Fix it now." Alex's voice was very insistent, and almost desperate. She leaned into the wall and slid down to the floor. Her sister might be strong, but she wasn't going to be able to move her off the floor without causing either herself or Alex some pain in their current states. Alex looked over at Dean, who was just standing there, with a sort of pleading look when Nic continued to stand over her.

Dean nodded at Alex and took hold of Nic, "come on, your turn." He steered her over to the shower, with a little bit of resistance. "Hey, Sammy, you almost done."

Sam stepped to the back of the shower, nearly clean now. "Almost, but she can come in." He held out a hand to invite Nic in.

"Make sure those cuts of hers get clean." Dean started pulling off his jeans once Nic had gotten into the shower. He looked back over at Alex who mouthed 'thank you' at him.

Sam had pretty well cleaned his own wound on his arm, but Nic started checking it over and gave it a little scrub, the end near the back of his arm wasn't quite clean. When she finished she rinsed out the wash cloth and handed it to him. He smiled, "thanks. Now." He made a spin motion with his finger, indicating she needed to turn around, because it was her turn now.

She made a little face at the same time Dean poked his head in, "Come on, hands on the wall and spread 'um blondie." He grinned, and Nic rolled her eyes, but smiled. Sam however gave Dean one of those disapproving looks. To which Dean slapped Sam on the shoulder, "lighten up, Sammy."

"It's Sam." Sam grumbled as Dean continued to invade the shower. "Do you mind?"

"Nah, go ahead, I'm just gonna make sure you don't miss a spot." Dean continued grinning when Sam pushed his head out and moved over to Nic.

Nic turned around, and actually did sort of put her hands on the shower wall, and spread her feet apart to steady herself. She had a feeling this was going to hurt, and she was right. She grimaced a little, although she could tell Sam was trying to be gentle, which she appreciated, it could have been a lot more painful. He carefully cleaned the cuts on her back, she wiggled here and there when it hurt, which it made it harder.

Dean knelt down with Alex who's face had turned red and tears were starting to fall. "What's wrong?" He put one hand on her shoulder, the other on her knee. She shook her head but said nothing. Dean hugged her, not knowing what else to do, and she cried, silently on his shoulder.

Sam decided to test Nic's comfort boundaries and put his hand on her hip, thumb curled onto her back, and his fingers stretched across her stomach. When she tried to lean forward away from the washcloth, he held her steady. Sam heard her whimper when he was trying to clean out one particularly deep and dirty cut. "Sorry." He whispered, feeling bad for the pain, but knowing, as she did, it had to be done.

Alex was still crying as before, completely silently, but he could feel as each tear dripped from her face and landed on his chest. Dean didn't get why she wasn't slowing down at least, or saying something.

Nic whimpered again and Dean stuck his head inside again, at the other side though, where Nic was. "Sorry, but Alex is crying. And well, I'm not really sure what to do. I tried just hugging her, but it's not stopping and she isn't saying why." Dean wasn't really very good with the whole crying thing, especially when it wasn't calming down.

Nic moved to get out but Sam's hand pulled her back. "You're not clean yet. There's still a lot of dirt in this thing. I'll see what I can do for Alex." He held the wash cloth out to Dean, who took it, and then climbed out of the shower, and then sat down with Alex. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Alex shook her head again, trying to wipe her face clean of tears, but more kept coming. Sam put an arm around her, and looked at her, "Is it just everything with the demon? Too many nightmares come to life?" Now she sort of nodded. "Seeing those scratches on your sister's back really freaked you out, huh? I can imagine." Sam actually could, in thinking how Alex may be feeling, he was taken back to that night when he laid back on his bed and opened his eyes when something dripped. And the panic that ripped through him when he saw Jessica plastered up on that ceiling. Alex leaned into Sam, trying to calm herself. His words helping slightly anyway. Thinking he perhaps could be the only one who could begin to understand what she felt when she saw those cuts.

Dean got in the shower with Nic and made that same finger spin motion Sam had, but he added, "assume the position." And smirked, which managed to get a hint of a smile out of her, which was maybe the most he could have hoped for at the moment. When she turned around Dean couldn't help but take a moment to admire her body before grabbing hold of her hip, much as Sam had been doing, and then he started to finish cleaning her wounds. Nic was actually pleasantly surprised with how gentle Dean was with the washcloth, like Sam had been. In the back of her mind, Nic had this thought that Dean would somehow scrub so hard with the wash cloth she'd rather deal with possible infection. But he didn't. He moved the cloth carefully, only applying a gentle pressure when it was needed.

Alex started to recover herself and Sam helped her to her feet. They both headed into the room. Kris was sitting on the bed, clean, dry purple underwear on and a fresh pink t-shirt. She seemed to be looking for pants of some kind to put on now. Kris smiled nervously at Sam and her sister as they came into the room. Sam smiled back at Kris, "mind if I use your towel?" there were only four towels, and five of them, so he figured he could use Kris' if she was done with it, since he was kind of wet still.

Sam wrapped the towel around his waist and pulled off his wet underwear and then when dry, pulled on a new pair. Alex pulled out a blue t-shirt, and green with yellow trim panties. Sam passed by Alex when he went back to the bathroom to hang his towel. Alex turned, she'd managed to wiggle out of her other panties and get on the new pair, but she was struggling with the hooks on her bra. One side was punctured the other bruised up and neither arm wanted to bend enough to properly reach the hook in the middle of her back. "Could you unhook it?" She dropped her towel and pointed toward the bra hook.

Kris looked over, she'd pulled on a pair of soft, yellow, cotton shorts that were kind of very short. She was curious at Alex's asking Sam to unhook her bra. She could have helped, but she was kind of realizing that perhaps her sister preferred to ask the hot guy.

Sam hesitated and then walked over with one hand unhooked her bra and then turned away. Alex smiled at how gentlemanly he behaved, it was sweet. "Thanks." She slid the bra off, dried her skin a little, and then carefully pulled on her tee shirt. Sam turned back around and smiled softly. Alex climbed onto her bed and sat down. Kris thought it was kind of cute too, the way Sam had done it, discreet, polite, and gentlemanly.

Dean finished cleaning out the cuts, he'd secretly been a little turned on by her little whimpering, which almost sounded like moans. He rinsed the cloth a little and set it on the little shelf with the soap. He was about to say, 'all done', but then decided to let her know a different way. Perhaps it wasn't what he should be doing with a nice girl like her. Who her and her sisters were perhaps the only people around he and Sam had a chance to hang out and be themselves with, without worrying they wouldn't 'get it'. But he couldn't resist. With Sam around, Dean hadn't gotten laid as much as he'd used to, it had been near a month since Cassie, and it was starting to get to him. And now he was in a hot shower with a barely clothed, hot girl, he couldn't deny his desires at least a little flirtatious play. He touched her back, carefully, where she wasn't clawed up, and ran his fingers along her skin. Nic reacted instantly, her back straightened up fully and her head tilted a little such that she could just see his face in the far periphery of her right side.

Dean took this as a good reaction, one that indicated she didn't mind. He then moved his other hand to her back, this one higher, just above her bra line, and then the first hand moved up too. She pushed back from the wall a little as his hands moved to her shoulders, just sliding over her wet skin. Then down her arms, his fingers played with hers a moment. He slid his hands over her stomach and she leaned back into his chest, her hands leaned back and brushed at his thighs. Dean started to wonder if a little casual sex wouldn't be out of the question.

Then they both jumped when something banged outside the shower, and then Sam poked his head in, looking a little suspiciously at Dean, "we should really bandage your back up, Nic. When you're done in here."

Nic nodded and quickly hopped out. Sam handed her a clean towel before heading back into the other room. Dean stayed in the shower to get himself cleaned up, feeling lucky he got away with just a big bruise. He also had to take care of himself, which he wondered if Nic knew he needed to. After she got out Dean discarded his underwear. He had peered out the shower curtain after Sam left and saw her pull off her bra and panties. She'd kept her back to the shower, but it had allowed Dean a very good look at her butt. Which he greatly appreciated, it helped his cause a lot, that nice soft, round, curve. She seemed to take her time drying herself off, and leaving him a pretty nice, unobstructed view of her backside, until she heard Dean grunt a little, then she wrapped her towel around herself, and went into the room.

While Nic had dried off, Sam went into the other room and bandaged Alex's side. Alex had already bandaged up Kris' arm while Sam had gone into the bathroom. Nic came out mostly dried. "I don't want to see it, okay." Alex said before Nic could drop her towel. She then turned a bit and pointed to the far corner that was now out of her sight.

Sam and Nic moved to the corner and there Nic dropped the towel to her waist. Sam realized quickly she must have removed her underwear in the bathroom while toweling off, as he was now presented with her completely bare back, as well as a hint of the upper curves of her butt. He had made sure his hands were nice and clean and took some antibiotic ointment that had been in the girls' first aid kit and used his fingers to apply it to her cuts. She again wiggled like she did in the shower when he was cleaning them, and he put his free hand on her stomach to keep her more still. Sam was still getting over Jessica's death, but had to admit all three sisters were very pretty, and had to fight to ignore the sort of raw arousing feeling that he kept feeling around them. Like when he had unhooked Alex's bra and held her in the shower. As well as when he'd cleaned Nic's wounds, and again now when he was dressing her wounds. And even in the shower with Kris, which he'd tried hard to ignore. Even Alex was only 18, and Kris was even younger, though both were undeniably beautiful. Though he felt a little 'pervy' thinking about Kris especially in such a way. Nic was was the only one he could kind of let the fantasy roam on and not feel overly guilty about, since she was actually a few years older than he was. He quickly bandaged Nic up and then stepped away, and sat down on his bed.

After Nic left, Dean cleaned up and got out, when he finished drying off and came into the room in his towel, he caught his brother sitting quickly on the bed, looking a little flustered, and Nic pulling her towel up to cover her now bandaged back.

Dean walked over to his bag and raised his eye brows at his brother. Sam gave Dean a, 'don't even say anything,' kind of look in exchange. Dean pulled a new pair of underwear out of his bag and slid them on, then discarded his towel. Nic noticed Sam's arm was still un-bandaged and moved over and sat next to him. Sam stared at her, still trying to recover his better senses when she reached over him and grabbed the bandages and the ointment. She then shifted, her towel tucked into it's self so it stayed up hands free, and took his arm. Nic applied some of the antibiotic to Sam's arm, he twitched his arm a little as she touched it. So she did like he'd done to her, she grabbed his arm with one hand to keep it steady and used the fingers of the other to fix him up. Sam noticed the strength of her grip on his arm, she was stronger than she looked. Nic put the bandage on and then pat his arm lightly.

Nic then got up and went to find herself some clothes. Alex looked around at everyone, seeming a little more relaxed, but still looking a little tense. She had a sort of bad feeling still. Kris had kind of curled up on the bed near Alex and was kind of staring off in the direction of the bathroom, where no one was until Nic went in the bathroom to get dressed. Unlike everyone else who seemed content to sit in their underwear and just catch their breath, Nic needed to keep busy. There was still some daylight left, it was now about 3:30 pm, and they were now low on bandages. She came back out of the bathroom dressed in clean jeans, short sleeved V-neck, and a light sweater tossed over it.

"Nicki, where are you going?" Alex asked, still shaken enough she was feeling needy and didn't want Nic to leave. Which was clear, to Nic anyway, in Alex's calling her Nicki.

"I'm gonna go get some restock for our supplies. I won't be too long okay. I promise, I'll be back before dark, okay, Alex." Nic picked up her keys and sunglasses and shoved her license and cash in her pockets. Kris finally rolled over to see both Sam and Dean still seemed to be sitting around in their underwear.

"Seriously, Nic, we can do that later, just rest. Your back is pretty cut up. You shouldn't strain it." Sam interjected, partly on Alex's behalf, and partly just because it was just true.

"Don't worry, okay, I'll be fine." Nic spoke very casually and sure of herself, and the certainty of her statement. She slipped on her shoes and headed out.


	21. Chapter 20

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, 7:30 pm

Dean had turned on the heater on low instead of putting anything on. Sam had tossed on a tee shirt, but nothing else and Alex remained in her tee shirt and panties, and Kris still had her shirt and shorts on. They all laid on the girls' bed, Alex in the middle, watching TV. Kris was on the side nearest the lamp and bedside table, next to Dean. They all were in need of a little distraction. Though Kris wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the TV, she'd kind of turned on her side and closed her eyes, facing toward the window and door of the room.

Sam finally had to 'check' on Alex though, "you really alright now?"

"Yeah, mostly. I will be once Nic gets back," She peered yet again at the window, noticing it was growing dark.

"What happened in the bathroom anyway?" Dean still didn't know why Alex was crying so much earlier.

"The scratches on Nic's back brought up too many memories for her. And that encounter in the tunnels was pretty intense for us." Sam replied for her when she just shook her head.

Dean frowned slightly and then hugged Alex to him briefly. She smiled a little, glad she had the guys to keep her company while Nic was off clearing her head, or whatever it was she did when she ran off by herself, especially since Kris was being extra quiet, taking a nap now, or something.

They all noticed the flash of headlights outside, and Alex jumped, and then the pain in her side made her lay back again. Dean pat her shoulder, "I'll check." He got up and went to the window. It was Nic getting out of her car with two bags. He opened the door before she could get to it. "Hey, what did you get?"

"Food, bandages, drinks, just some stuff to hopefully make the evening better." Nic set the stuff on the table noticing the temperature in the room. Dean closed the door again and went to dig through the bags. Nic quickly peeled off her sweater, and kicked off her shoes. "How high is the heater anyway?"

Dean shrugged, and then grinned at her, "it's comfortable if you strip down a little." He pulled out some beer and smiled and then some gummy worms. "You did get good stuff."

"Ooo, ooo, gummy worms!" Alex wiggled her fingers hoping Dean would toss them to her. He did and she managed to catch them without straining her side. Kris had sat up a little bit and smiled at the sight of gummy candy.

"Want a beer, Sammy?" Dean was pulling a bottle out for himself and looked over at his brother. Sam gave him a look for calling him 'Sammy', but nodded that he wanted a beer. Dean also pulled out a bag of chips and sat back down on the bed.

Nic sat down on the other bed and laid back. She cringed slightly as a bunched up part of the blankets pressed into her back the wrong way and she rolled over quickly. "How's your side Alex?" Nic looked over at her sister.

"Okay I guess." Alex shifted and tried to look. She lifted her shirt and the bandage was pretty well stained with blood, but it felt like it wasn't bleeding anymore.

"Maybe we should all change these." Sam suggested pulling out the bandages and moving over to change Alex's bandage. Nic stood up so she could have a look at her sister's injury. She also took a look at Kris' arm, since her left arm was right there for her to look at. She pulled back the bandage and nodded.

"How's the bruise?" Nic tapped Dean's shoulder after she fixed Kris with a new bandage. Dean turned to show her his chest. It was pretty nasty looking, "Ooo, well, how's it feel?" She made a face at how bad it looked.

"Eh, could be worse." Dean moved a little, it hurt, but not so much he couldn't keep the pain off his face.

"And it's just a bruise, you didn't crack any ribs or anything?" Nic asked, looking critically at the bruise and then at his face.

"I don't think so." Dean shook his head. Sam finished with Alex and she laid back again, Dean leaned back next to her. Sam got up and went over to Nic. They both sat on the other bed and she changed his bandage on his arm. Then Nic turned, laid down on her stomach across the bed, and pulled up the back of her shirt. Sam peeled off the old bandage and put on a new one. Sam threw out the old ones in the bathroom and then Alex motioned him back to the bed. She liked having a Winchester brother on each side of her, she felt protected that way.

The brothers glanced at each other and at Nic alone on the other bed. But she didn't seem to bothered by it. Actually she seemed quite content with the whole other bed to herself, as well as content remaining in her jeans and shirt. 


	22. Chapter 21

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 14, 2006, 10:30 pm

Sam was still sitting with Alex on the girls' bed, Kris had moved over to the other bed and was resting, eating some candy and watching TV, Dean was sitting at the table eating a sandwich and poking around online. Nic had been sitting on the other bed, but got up to finally go change into something comfortable. They all heard the toilet flush and the sink running, some shuffling about. She'd been in the bathroom maybe four minutes. That was when Alex felt a pressure on her and then was suddenly lifted into the air.

"No!" Alex shrieked, trying to scramble away from something she couldn't see.

Kris jumped up immediately, panic on her face as she scrambled to the other bed. "No! Alex!" She tried grabbing for her sister's hand.

"Alex!" Sam jumped up and grabbed her arm, trying desperately to pull her down. Alex's shirt was quickly ripped from her body.

"Alex! No, let go of her!" Dean practically flew across the room grabbing Alex, and pushing at something in the air above her.

Sam pulled away long enough to bang on the bathroom door. "Nic, help!" Alex's panties were then ripped off her, and she screamed.

Nic had heard the screams and yanked her small knife out of her jeans which now lay on the bathroom floor. She'd been changing when she heard Alex shriek, and the guys yelling, and Kris crying. With nothing but her underwear on Nic flung the door open, dagger in hand. The demon was about to violate her sister, however, Dean was making it difficult. He had figured out from watching Nic, it had some form and force, but just couldn't be seen, and was shoving at it. The demon now raised a clawed hand about to strike Dean down.

"Dean, duck!" Nic shouted and rushed at the demon. Dean ducked at just the right moment, the demon missed him, and gave Nic a moment. She pushed Sam a little in getting there, the demon turned back in time to drag it's claws across Nic's chest and stomach as she jabbed the dagger into the back of the demon's neck.

They all heard the hiss and the demon dropped Alex back to the bed with a couple new puncture wounds and some bruising. The demon jumped back removed the dagger and vanished from the room, fleeing. The dagger was dropped to the floor. The group looked around, kind of checking if it was really gone.

"Is it gone Nic?" Dean looked up at her standing on the bed. She nodded. Alex had curled into a ball, less from the need to cover her own nudity, as just from the need to feel comforted. Kris had dropped to her knees on the bed next to her sister and was trying to cover her up a little.

Sam was trying to figure out what happened, but decided there was time for that later. He reached out and pulled Nic off the bed where she'd kind of frozen. While he carried her over to the other bed, Dean was pulling the sheet up to cover Alex. He then climbed onto the bed with her, sat her up and got behind her. He sat against the wall and leaned Alex's back into his chest, and the wrapped both his arms and legs around her. She didn't cry now though, she just shook, scared. Kris shifted when Dean came over to take care of Alex. She wasn't sure now what to do until Dean motioned gently for her to come sit as well. Kris moved up the bed gently to sit next to Dean and Alex.

When Sam put Nic on the bed and she sort of recovered her senses she looked over at the other bed and moved to try and get up. She wanted to go to her sister. "Whoa, no moving. Dean's got her. She's, well, she's as okay as I guess you could expect after that. You need to stop moving though, you're bleeding, okay." He could tell she wasn't really paying any attention to herself.

When Kris heard 'bleeding' though she turned, looking over at Nic. She had been so scared for Alex, Kris hadn't noticed the gashes Nic now had across her front to match the ones she had on her back. She shuddered when she did catch sight of them and tried to curl herself against Dean's side and held onto Alex and Dean.

"What?" Nic glanced at Sam totally having missed most all of what he'd said. He just grabbed for the first aid and a towel, and pushed her shoulders gently back when she tried to get up again.

"Just lay down, okay, you're bleeding." He touched one of the cuts with his finger and then held it up. When she saw the blood she stopped wiggling around. Sam tried to slow the bleeding. She had two good cuts across her stomach, and another on her chest. "Hold this a second, okay?" He took her hand and put it on the towel that was over her stomach, and then got up to get another towel.

He grabbed a hand towel from the bathroom. As he came out of the bathroom he caught Dean's look. Dean said softly, "is she okay?" Sam nodded. The cuts didn't look too bad, but between these and the earlier ones she was now pretty cut up and had lost a bit of blood today.

"Is she?" Sam returned the question looking at Alex huddled up against Dean with just a sheet covering her. Dean shrugged, he really wasn't sure. Kris and Alex had kind of turned to face each other a little, huddled around one of Dean's legs. Both seemed kind of far away. Sam was a little concerned about Kris too, though she physically was alright at least. Sam wasn't sure there was much more he could do for Alex right now than what Dean was, so he nodded and went to attend to Nic. He took the hand towel and placed it against her chest. He looked at her, and then at the blood staining part of her blue bra. He sort of pointed at it and stuttered, "I, I'm... I'm going to..."

At that point Nic replied, much more coherently than before. "Do whatever you need to do." She felt tired now. In most cases she would have insisted she was okay and could tend to her own wounds. Not because she was shy, but just because she didn't want to bother others with things she could do on her own. But she was feeling drained enough she was content to let someone else care for her right now. It had been a long time since anyone really tended to her. Alex and Kris tried sometimes, but usually things worked the other way. Nic cared for them, and Kris did what she could, bringing this or that to Nic, but generally keeping out of the way. And Alex usually let Nic care for Nic, not for lack of caring, but just because Nic took things upon herself, and Alex didn't fight that.

Sam, carefully, with one finger, tugged back on the right cup of her bra. It had been ripped a little, as had the skin below it. The cut went from her chest just above her left breast down and just onto the right. He gently pressed on it with the towel to slow the bleeding.

Alex's shaking had calmed, her breathing seemed a little more normal. Dean whispered to her, "do you need anything, water, beer, clothes?" Alex shook her head to all these things. "How about a bandage, I think you've got a new cut." She glanced down and noticed blood on her other side. She shrugged.

Kris looked too at the wound Dean mentioned on Alex, "you should fix that." She nodded, speaking softly.

When Dean shifted to get a bandage Alex grabbed his arm. "Where?" That was all she got out, but all she needed to.

"Just a bandage for you, okay. I won't even let go of you, okay?" Dean leaned and Sam handed him a bandage. Alex leaned back into him again and Dean pulled aside the part of the sheet that was over her side and carefully bandaged her up.

"Is it bad?" Alex looked up at him.

"No, not even as bad as the other." Dean assured her, and it wasn't. It bled much less. Alex seemed satisfied and curled up.

"Nic, can you hold this one now?" She responded quickly, moving her hand to the towel on her chest. Sam carefully pulled back the one on her stomach, cleaned the cuts up and bandaged them. Then he moved back to the one on her chest and cleaned and bandaged it.

"Thanks." Nic smiled slightly and tried to sit up. She was now realizing the predicament of her current state, back and front. If she moved to make her back comfortable, she strained her stomach, and if she moved to make her stomach comfortable she hurt her back. "Shit" she cursed under her breath when she realized the pain in any movement right now.

"Maybe you should just try and sleep." Sam suggested, leaning over her a little.

"Yeah, cause that'll be easy." She grumbled as she shifted again, trying to get comfortable. And then tugged at her bra. "Could you get this off me?"

Sam looked at her, "Um, what do you want to put on?"

"Anything loose." Nic replied as Sam went over to her bag and pulled out the first casual top he found, a plain black, cotton, tank top. He held it up so she could see it, "perfect." Nic had carefully sat up and was finding it was painful reaching for the hook of her bra. She also noticed Dean staring at her with a little smile. "Oh, I see, this is amusing for you." She stuck her tongue out at him and pouted.

Sam gave Dean a look and Dean rolled his eyes, "I'm just playing with her. She knows that." Then he looked again at Nic, pretty sure she knew he was just playing with her, "right?"

Nic nodded and smiled slightly. Sam looked at Nic, "did you want to go in the bathroom, or I can hold up a towel or something?"

"It's okay," Nic just shifted, she had been aware earlier in the bathroom that Dean was watching her, and had allowed him a rather long look at her butt. However, she decided it was best to keep some mystery, if possible. Her back was to the other bed, and Sam sat down sort of beside her, but facing the other bed. He handed her the shirt, when she had her shirt in hand she said, "Okay." Sam realized it meant she wanted him to unhook, and like he'd done earlier with Alex, he popped it open with one hand and kept his head turned the other way. When he did Dean watched and then gave him an impressed sort of look that made Sam roll his eyes at his older brother.

"Hey Alex, you still awake?" Dean then asked. She seemed to have relaxed against him. He could see Kris' eyes still open, so he knew she was still awake, for the moment anyway. He got a little grumble in return. He then looked back over at Nic who was wiggling her shirt on, and then turned around. "She really can sleep after anything."

"The magic of being Alex I guess." Nic knew her sister, and still didn't know how she slept so easy. Especially with all those dreams she had. As for Nic, she hardly dreamt at all.

Dean shifted and slid down, turning Alex a little so she faced the other bed. Kris moved with them, happy to lay down. She felt tired and was happy to just sleep. He gently rested Alex's head on the pillow, his right arm under her neck and wrapping around her shoulders. He tugged at the blankets trying to get them to pull over himself and both girls as he tried to press himself up against Alex's back, but was having trouble. Nic scooted off the other bed and pulled the blankets up, essentially tucking her sisters and Dean into bed. She kissed Alex's forehead and then Kris', getting a little smile from Kris when she did. "What? No nite-nite kiss for me?" Dean fake pouted at her.

Nic giggled softly and kissed Dean softly, on his cheek, right by the corner of his mouth. "Better?" Dean smiled and nodded in his best imitation of a five year old, and then his smile turned into that devilish little grin before closing his eyes. He then put his left arm over Alex, his hand reaching all the way to Kris and softly pulling her in a little too by her hip and lower back. Alex snuggled back into him, and he felt Kris' fingers softly brush his side. Perhaps it was the strong protective vibe Dean was feeling, or maybe he was just enjoying the feeling of a female body against his, or maybe it was a little of both, but he pulled Alex in as close as he could, and when her lower body leaned back slightly, he slipped his left leg over hers. If anything came after her again, it would have to get through him first. In doing so, his leg brushed Kris' legs and he smiled softly at her over Alex's head. Kris smiled back a little and let her legs softly rest against Dean's leg.

Nic leaned back and sat again on the other bed and looked at Sam. "Guess you're stuck with me tonight."

Sam laughed slightly, "I think I can handle that." He flipped off the light, but wasn't really actually feeling like he was going to be able to sleep.

Nic laid down and tried to find some way to be comfortable enough she might fall asleep, it hurt too much to lay on her back, and the sides weren't much better. Maybe if the bed had been softer, she could have managed. Sam laid down and noticed Nic's shifting. She turned over and glanced at him, "sorry, I'm sure this isn't helping."

"It's okay, Jess wiggled a lot in her sleep, I'm used to it." Sam actually thought in the darkness, Nic actually didn't look all that different than Jess. She wiggled like she did, and she had that long blond hair and soft features.

Nic shifted a little more onto her side, curling her arm up and under her pillow, sort of hugging it to her shoulder. Her other arm draped off her side, she now looked right at Sam, her eyes adjusting such that even in this dark she could see all the features in his face. She spoke softly, "How long has it been? Since she...?"

"Six months, twelve days." Sam shook his head a little, looking down at the mattress between himself and Nic. "It still feels like it was yesterday sometimes."

"What was she like? I mean, if you don't mind my asking. And if you want to talk about her." Nic shifted a little again, but didn't take her eyes off Sam's face.

Sam looked up again at Nic, "she was amazing. Funny, and sweet, beautiful, and vibrant. She loved having fun, often with the simple things, bike rides, driving out to the beach. We'd go to this little bar just off campus, they served good drinks, all our friends hung out there, fun music. She liked to dance, and after a couple beers, she could usually get me to dance with her." Sam actually cracked a little smile at the memory, but his gaze wasn't far away, he was looking right back at Nic. "She had a smile that lit up a room, and a personality to match. But she wasn't like some wild party girl, people were just drawn to her."

Sam hadn't realized it but tears had formed in his eyes, not until one escaped down his cheek. Nic gave him one of those little compassionate smiles, "she sounds like she was a pretty amazing person. It does often seem so unfair doesn't it?"

Sam nodded, trying to wipe away the tears. "Have you ever been in love?" He wasn't sure what made him ask, maybe it was her tone, like she'd lost something else besides parents.

"Honestly, no. Not even close actually." Nic she actually snickered a little, "my friend Tess used to say I was the most cynical romantic she'd ever met."

"What did she mean by that?" Sam was curious.

"I think because I always talked like I wanted to be in love, but always seemed so dead set it would never happen to me. To the point she said I'd turned it into a self fulfilling prophesy. I was so sure I'd never have it, that I didn't." Nic tapped her finger on the mattress, then pressed her hand to the bed for balance and shifted again. "Alex on the other hand, she seems so flighty, like you'd never be able to hold her down, but she's amazingly open to love. She had a boyfriend for two years in high school. He was a good guy until some demon got a hold of him and twisted his head all around. He wound up beating her up, dumping her and then running off to Florida or something. Totally broke her heart. Freaked his parents out, they blamed her for messing up their son. It was bad."

"But some guy must have tried at one point to get to you, didn't they?" Sam wasn't sure where he was going with this, it was all on impulse at this point. Aside from personal walls, which he had noticed, she seemed smart, and funny, and was very blatantly pretty.

"I don't know, I sort of dated a couple guys. But I usually ended up somehow bringing the whole thing to a halt after not too long. Maybe it was all part of that self fulfilling prophesy thing." She shrugged her shoulder. "Maybe I knew too well I wasn't normal, so anything normal just didn't happen."

"Yeah, I guess I sort of get that. I just wanted so bad to do normal things, I had to try. And it was easy with Jess, she sat next to me my sophomore year in this really dull philosophy class. The first day she smiled at me and said hello. And it all kind of happened from there." Sam let out a sigh. "I don't know what I'd have done without her. And it hurts knowing that without me, she'd still be alive."

Nic wasn't sure exactly what to say to that, "it's that kind of guilt that will destroy you. Make you a hollow version of yourself. Like you're walking around with a missing part of yourself." Nic realized after she spoke that her thought had wandered off down an odd path. Sam focused on Nic's eyes, wondering what she wasn't saying. He could tell there was something, some pain she wasn't letting on to beyond the hint that it was there. "I'd bet she wouldn't want you to be consumed by that. Did you ever tell her about how you grew up?"

"No," He looked down again for a moment, and then back at Nic, "is that a horrible thing?"

"No, I didn't tell my friends. One of them found out, Stacie, and so then Tess and Gabe found out too. And even then, I don't think they fully understood. But Stacie and I had a ghostly encounter and I had to get rid of it. None of them ever knew the truth of my parents or what my dad was really up to when he went out of town. We always said he was at a conference or lecturing somewhere, since he was a scientist." Nic shifted, yet again, and then looked frustrated with her sleeping position.

It was then Sam made a motion with his hand for her to come closer. She scooted over a little, curious, wondering if there was something he wanted to say, but didn't want to say it even at a whisper. "Turn onto your other side." She wasn't sure what he was up to, but she turned onto her left side. Sam slid over just a touch, so that his chest was up against her back, much like how Dean was sleeping with Alex on the other bed. Then Sam slid his left arm, which was his uninjured one, under Nic's neck, and rolled onto his back, and put his right hand on her hip and then guided her hip back so that hopefully, most of her cuts could be free from pressure. Her right shoulder and side rested along Sam's side, and her left side on the bed. It really did relieve most of her back from the pain. "How's that?"

"Better actually. Thanks." Nic tilted her head so she could look at him.

"Now, if I can just find something to do with the arm." He wiggled his fingers on the other side of her head, and actually smiled.

"Well, what would you normally do? Like did you ever sleep like this with Jessica?" Nic asked, carefully, not wanting to make him sad when he seemed to be smiling a little again.

"Uh, yeah. Usually on her shoulder," Sam curled his arm around her, and rested his hand on Nic's shoulder. "Is that okay?" Nic seemed to ponder the position, which Sam figured to be she wasn't really comfortable with it. "It's okay, I can leave it out."

He started to straighten his arm out again when she grabbed hold of it and guided his arm across her chest and laid his hand to rest on her side. "I have a weird thing with my neck." She explained, "but this is okay if it works for you." She felt him nod against her hair and she glanced at him again.

"What do you mean a weird thing with your neck?" Sam rested his right hand on his own stomach.

"I'm okay with like clothes, like turtlenecks, but other people's hands or arms near my neck makes me uncomfortable, just a little. Just a weird thing." Nic hadn't taken her hand off Sam's arm after she moved it, and her left arm rested along the mattress, with her hand placed gingerly over the bandaged area of her stomach.

"Is my arm..." Sam still had his arm around the back of her neck.

"It's fine now. It's just the front of my neck." Nic had relaxed, and wasn't shifting around anymore, comfortable leaned on Sam. He nodded and exhaled, and found nestling his face in her hair, which smelled of some kind of citrus fruit mix, very soothing. He remembered that about Jessica, he loved the smell of her hair, although Jess' always had a flowery smell. They both drifted off fairly easily from there. 


	23. Chapter 22

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 15, 2006, 7am

Sam had woken first and walked down the street to get coffee. Nic had seemed to shift easily when he stirred and he left her laying on her side. He had no idea what they were going to do today. It seemed like if they had any hope of stopping this demon they had to know more about it so they could banish it back to hell. When he came in he noticed his brother start to stir. Dean opened his eyes and saw Sam sitting down at the little table with coffee. Alex and Kris were still sleeping pretty soundly, and Dean managed to slide out of the bed gently. They shifted a little, but didn't wake. "Hey," Dean said in a whisper.

"Hey." Sam replied and tapped one of the other coffees. He figured if the girls didn't wake soon, he'd just drink the other coffee, or Dean would, and they could get them more later.

Dean shuffled over to the table and sat down taking hold of the coffee and taking a long drink. "So, I think we have to do some more digging on this demon. We have to kill this thing though. I don't want it to have another chance to do what it did last night."

"Yeah, we have to try anyway." Sam glanced over at the sleeping girls, particularly Alex. "Do you think they might stick around?" What Sam was really trying to get at was if Dean wouldn't mind the girls sticking around with them, for however long, indefinitely. Obviously he had no idea how the girls felt, actually, even though they hadn't said it, he got the distinct impression Alex and Kris might be very open to the idea of making this hunting thing a fivesome. Nic though, while he really felt like they were building a trust and a friendship, he had trouble reading her. Dean had one point the other day at the Cafe, even though his brother tended to avoid talking about his feelings, they were usually still apparent through his actions, or just the vibe he picked up from Dean. But Nic, she hid her feelings pretty well. Sam had to assume it was hiding, because after talking to her, he knew she felt a lot, she just masked it all.

"I don't know," Dean sipped his coffee and looked over at his brother. Part of him was telling him not to care, that they would leave when they were done here. That the sisters would go back to whatever they were planning, and forget all about he and Sam. After all, that was what people Dean found himself caring about eventually did, leave him. But there was some sad little, perhaps boyish, hope that maybe they'd found people who maybe could accept him for him. Who could know the truth and deal with the things he did, and still be there. When Dean didn't say anything more Sam sort of stared at him like he was trying to read his brother's mind. "Dude, that's creepy."

"Seriously, Dean. I know you're all anti social and lonerish, or whatever. But you always say it's cause that's how it's gotta be with the job. Well, they are different. They're, as you'd say, freaks, like us." Sam watched his brother's reactions, forgetting for the moment about his coffee.

Dean had stopped drinking his coffee now too, and he looked back at Sam. Something in him couldn't admit that he shared his brother's hopes. It wasn't about pride either, he wasn't concerned about looking like the 'tough guy' in front of Sam, he just didn't even want to admit it to himself. Because, somehow Dean managed to convince himself that if he didn't admit or acknowledge those wants, those hopes, that when the girls eventually walked away from him, that it wouldn't hurt. "Look, Sam, even if I wanted them to stay, it doesn't mean that they are going to be willing to play Buffy to our Angel."

Sam sighed, he knew what Dean was saying was true, but Sam believed that there was a chance that if they asked, that the girls might be willing to team up with them. And then maybe this road, this life on the road, wouldn't be so lonely. "It's not cause they got hurt today is it? Cause we did too."

"No." Dean replied just fast enough that he perhaps betrayed his real feelings about wanting the girls to stay as much as Sam did. He'd also perhaps raised his voice a little louder than he should have. "Hell, I'd probably have gotten good and dead in that tunnel without Nic. She like knew where the demon was, knew how to dodge it."

"Yeah, but you might not have been down there at all if it weren't for us." Nic had woken up when Dean replied to Sam. She cringed a little as she sat up in bed.

"If we'd managed to figure things out without you, yeah, we would have. Actually, I'd still like to know how you, like saw it." Dean tried to lower his voice again, when Alex stirred a little. An action that made Nic look over and then turn back with a sort of glare in Dean's direction. "It just seemed like you could see-"

Despite the pain it caused her, Nic practically jumped out of bed and rushed over to Dean and slapped a hand over his mouth. Sam looked at her a little confused. Nic then said very softly, "I don't know how. And they don't know I can." She pulled her hand away from Dean's mouth when he bit her hand, just gently, but he didn't like not being able to say something if he wanted. Plus she looked so flustered, he sort of hoped she'd take it as a joke. He wasn't sure she'd gotten the joke, but she also didn't look upset by the bite.

"When did you first?" Sam made a motion with his hand as opposed to saying the words she seemed to not want spoken. He also scooted his chair in closer to Dean's so Nic could speak softer.

"I don't know, but I saw it when it killed my mom." Both brothers noticed Nic looked on edge, like she was about to cry. Then Alex stirred again and pushed herself up. Nic quickly turned her face away from her sister, in an attempt to hide that there were tears forming in her eyes. Kris shifted a little when Alex started to sit up, but didn't seem to wake.

"I'm gonna try a proper shower, okay. So if I yell, someone come help me." Alex dragged herself off the bed as the guys nodded, she still had the sheet wrapped around herself lightly, as it had been all night.

"Okay Alex." Nic managed to get out in a mostly normal voice. Alex didn't seem to notice anything off with Nic, and she managed to shuffle carefully into the bathroom with the sheet around her and her bag. Once she was inside she tossed the sheet back onto the bed and closed the bathroom door over. Once the water started running both guys looked at Nic who was now roughly wiping at her eyes.

"Why haven't you told them?" Sam touched her arm and looked up at her, not sure what else to do. He wanted to stand up and hug her, or pull her down to his lap, or sit them both down on the bed, or something, but he couldn't figure what, so he just sat with his hand lightly holding her wrist.

Nic seemed to choke up again. "Because, it's not normal, even by our fucked up standards. My father always said it was because of the good of the soul that we don't see demons for what they are. At least that was his idea. So what does it mean that I can?" The tears welled again and again she wiped viciously at them, in the process she yanked her arm out of Sam's grasp. She'd never spoken of this to anyone, at least not anyone alive.

Sam was about to follow his next impulse to stand up and hug her, but Dean beat him to it. Sam stood up anyway though, as Dean pulled Nic to him, one hand cupping her head, the other on her back, careful not to put undo pressure on her cuts, but forceful enough he hoped she wouldn't try slipping away after a second. That would have been hard though, since Sam stood right behind her. He stepped in close and put his hands on her upper arms and shoulders, and lightly rubbed back and forth, much like what she'd done with him their first night here. Sam then spoke, hoping to maybe assuage her fears of what it meant. "If you think somehow that means there's something wrong with you, I don't think that's true."

"Not a chance. You saw it and because of that you got us out of those tunnels alive. And you saved Alex last night. And probably my sorry ass too." Dean had glanced at Sam when Sam spoke, and then leaned his head in to talk to Nic, to back up what Sam had told her. It was then Dean could feel her shifting and trying to move.

Nic turned her head and found herself pretty much stuck where she was. The brothers had pretty well fenced her in, between them. "I'm sorry." She shifted again, but there was still no way away.

"Sorry for what?" Dean asked, leaning back a little to make eye contact with her. When her face turned, and her eyes eluded him, he decided a little force was warranted. He took her face in his hand and turned her head to him, pretty much leaving her no choice, but him to look at.

Nic shrugged, "I shouldn't have said anything. This is why I don't tell anyone about these things." She reached her hands up to wipe at her face again, and Sam grabbed hold of her wrists. She now looked a little startled, she wasn't used to this at all. She wasn't used to so much attention even from one person focused on her, much less two people. And no one had ever been so forceful with her like this. Her father and sisters always just accepted what she said, and generally didn't pry deeper. Now perhaps Alex and Kris assumed Nic told them everything, and her father was just too distracted to notice. She tried to look at Sam, but Dean still had her face in his hands and wasn't letting her look anywhere except for in his eyes.

"Not so rough, okay." Sam held both her hands in one of his stepping in so her back pressed into his chest. With his free hand he gently brushed at her tears. "You're not at war with your tears. And don't be sorry for anything. There's nothing to be sorry for." He and Dean glanced at each other again, sort of checking in. They were definitely on the same page.

Nic tried once more to wiggle free of the Winchester boys, but they weren't letting her just run away. "I think I need some air." She said, Dean's hands slid down to her shoulders, and Sam's were near her elbows. Then she looked toward the bathroom, knowing her sister might need her, "but Alex..."

"I'll sit and listen if Alex needs help, okay. Here, have some coffee, get some air. But let Dean go with you, okay?" Sam twisted a little to really look at her when he spoke.

Nic nodded and the guys let go of her. Sam gave her a little hug before releasing her to go pull on a pair of pants. He then sat down again with his coffee. Dean tossed on a shirt, jeans, shoes, grabbed his car keys just in case she wanted to drive anywhere, and was ready as soon as Nic was. They both grabbed their coffees and Dean opened the door for Nic and then closed it behind them.


	24. Chapter 23

Downtown Tonopah  
May 15, 2006, 7:30am

Nic walked out of the motel and stopped in the middle of the parking lot and looked around, not really sure where she was going. Dean came up beside her, "any idea where you'd like to go? Or at least walk or ride? Cause we could drive around."

When Nic looked at him, he motioned toward the Impala. Her coffee in hand, she had already begun drinking it fast. It wasn't hot anymore, but it was still warm and she drank it down quickly. She glanced at the car and nodded. Dean unlocked it and opened the passenger door first to let Nic in before rounding the car to get in and start it up. The music came on when Dean turned on the car. Nic leaned her head back and closed her eyes as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road. After about two blocks Dean turned off the music and Nic lifted her head and opened her eyes.

"Hey," Dean spoke as if just greeting her.

She sort of glanced at him curiously. "Hey."

"So what? You think cause you can see the demon that makes you evil or soulless or something?" Dean knew a little about the notions of people being able to, in the awake normal world, see demons for what they are, but not enough to know anything concrete to say to make her feel better. But his gut told him she wasn't evil, and it seemed pretty clear she wasn't soulless.

"I don't know. Is it horrible that I never told Alex or Kris?" Nic was staring at him with desperate eyes. Desperate for some kind of assurance or comfort, or just an easing of her mind.

"I don't think so. We all have things that we don't want to share with anyone, for whatever reasons. But what stops you from telling your sisters?" Dean drove down the street, pausing at a red light.

Nic tried to figure out how to word her response, "I don't want them to think it's something bad. I don't want them to fear me. I guess it's not completely true that I never told anyone. I tried to once to tell my dad, right after my mom died. I told him it was a demon, and that it 'seemed' certain ways. He kept saying, 'you didn't actually see it, right? It's just a sense, right? What you think you saw was just your imagination.' And it scared me. I thought there must be something wrong so I said it was just a sense. That I didn't actually see it's clawed hands, and those dark reddish yellow eyes. I didn't really see those pointed teeth that could probably eat a person alive." Nic shuddered, and hugged herself.

They'd reached the outskirts and Dean pulled off the road and turned the engine off. He'd grabbed his jacket, but now actually realized Nic hadn't. She was only wearing the tank top she'd slept in. He flipped on the heater, and slid over to her, putting his arm around her, and trying to pull her into his jacket. "You don't want them to pull away from you or leave you." Dean stared at Nic intensely.

Nic looked back at Dean now, their eyes locked on each other. "They're all I have."

Dean then squeezed Nic to him with all his strength, his mouth leaned into her ear, and he whispered, "I know what you mean." Dean felt his mind now daring to really have the same hopes Sam had expressed to him about the girls.

Dean was squeezing Nic so hard, it was hurting a little, but she said nothing and did nothing. In some odd way it felt good to feel the pain from those cuts. And the intensity of his stare and of his embrace made an impression, a good one. Nic felt herself giving into the comfort of him, and slid her hands around his waist, settling her head into his shoulder, and letting her shoes slide off her feet and curling her legs up into his lap. Dean exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding when Nic essentially curled herself up in his lap, and then kissed the top of her head, without even thinking. He suddenly felt himself getting dangerously attached, what if she wasn't going to stay. "Have you thought about what to do after this?"

"After last night?" Nic shifted when Dean spoke. She sort of popped back to her senses, sitting up and sliding her legs down and off of Dean.

"After here. After this whole thing plays out, hopefully with us banishing that demon, or killing it or something." Dean realized he was asking a loaded question, and he wondered if he was about to get himself hurt here. If she was about to say, 'we're leaving of course, going off to wherever you aren't, Dean Winchester'. So no one had actually said that to him, well, no one who truly meant anything to him, but that's how it felt when Sam went off to college, and when his dad took off and still hadn't been seen, and barely had communicated to them. It was then that the most random statement came out of Dean's mouth, "if it weren't for Sam needing to find what killed Jess, I don't think he'd be here. I'd be out here alone."

Nic looked at him, wondering what he meant by that, but he just looked off out the window. "I don't know what we're doing. Alex started complaining about missing friends and maybe she wanted to go to college now, like her friends. So we were headed west when we heard about the Marie Gabel death. I think the plan had been to go home after. At least so Alex could decide whatever it is she wants. And I don't know if Kris might want to try college, since she's about done with her high school studies. I'm not sure I can stop now though, but at the same time I don't know if I can leave them." Nic shook her head. "I guess I don't know what's happening anymore. Maybe I never did."

There was a voice in the back of Dean's mind that was shouting at him. Part of him wanted to just open his mouth and ask her to stay with them. To help him and Sam fight those things that go bump in the night. But he didn't, he couldn't, he wouldn't dare. Because if he never asked then he couldn't want it that much, so he couldn't hurt that much when they left him. He remained clinging to her though, not wanting to let go. If he could keep her here like this a little while longer then she couldn't leave him, yet.

When Dean said nothing else to her, just squeezed her again, Nic sighed and curled up again. Neither one of them noticing or caring if anyone happened to pass by and wonder. 


	25. Chapter 24

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 15, 2006, 7:35 am

Alex managed to shower and get out all on her own. She came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and noticed it was only Sam and Kris now. He was sitting in one of the chairs drinking coffee and Kris was stirring, sitting up in bed. Alex spotted the coffee, "One for me?"

"Yup, it's for you. It should still be good and warm." Sam held it out to her when she walked over. He glanced over at Kris, "did you want one too?"

Kris shook her head softly. "I'm more of a hot chocolate drinker." She looked kind of sheepish and glanced toward the bathroom. "Anyone mind if I shower. I still feel all dirty from yesterday." She did feel icky still from all the dirt and blood yesterday.

"Go ahead, I just finished." Alex smiled at her sister.

"I don't mind." Sam shook his head softly, "and I'll remember the hot chocolate next time." It was kind of sweet actually, that she liked hot chocolate. Kris smiled back and crawled out of bed and headed into the bathroom, leaving Sam and Alex alone in the room for a bit.

Alex took a sip and smiled, "This is perfect. Where did Nic and Dean go? Is there a new lead or something?"

"No, they just went out for some air. I'm not really sure where we go from here on this one." Sam wished he had some idea, but it really wasn't a demon who left a lot of clues.

"Yeah, that's what always happens. We hang around a few days. No more deaths happen, so we end up driving around finding cases of odd things happening here and there, and we take that on in the mean time. But at least those, we solve something a lot of times. This demon is like never ending." She drank the small cup quickly and sat down on the bed, and shivered slightly.

Sam had pretty much finished slowly nursing his coffee, so he set it down and moved over next to Alex on the bed. "So what are you doing next?"

"I got kind of cranky after our last mission, and so Nic said we were going home. Which I said good to at the time. But now, I'd like to stop home, but hanging out with you guys, it's changed things. I think what we do along the way while following this demon is good, but it's hard, just us. Nic and I get on each other's nerves a lot, but I don't want to be without her. I don't want to go home and have her take off on her own and leave me and Kris behind. But it's hard sometimes it just being us. Kris always ends up trying to keep the peace, but sometimes I think Nic and I just stress her out. But with you guys, it seems nicer." Alex almost asked if she could come along with the guys. But she stopped just short of that.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. You girls have made these last few days a lot better for me. And I doubt Dean would admit it, I think he agrees. I mean..." Sam was hoping maybe she'd just latch onto his drift.

Alex smiled, "I know I don't know your brother that well, but I like him anyway. And he seems like a good guy. Like he maybe doesn't think my sisters and I are big pains. I'd love for us all to keep helping each other, beyond this demon." She finally put words to what they both wanted.

"I'd like for that too. I know you girls aren't 'normal' either. But it's more normal with you than just Dean and I." Sam was feeling hopeful, one sister down, two to go. "Do you think Nic and Kris would go for it?"

"Kris I think would, I can tell she likes you guys, and she likes having you around. Nic, she's hard to read sometimes. But I think she likes you guys and likes having people to share this all with as much as I do." Alex then reached over and hugged Sam. He hugged her back, wrapping his arms all the way around her.

"Are you okay? After?" Sam didn't want to sour a good moment, but he'd been worrying about her at the same time.

"Getting better, it was scary though. It was like living a nightmare." Alex's eyes turned serious, keeping her arms around his neck. Behind his neck she spun the ring that was on her left ring finger.

Sam caught the action out of the corner of his eye. "That ring is really pretty."

Alex pulled her hand from his shoulder and looked at her ring. "It was my mother's wedding ring. I asked my father once about it and if I could keep it. And he let me. He was like that. Gave us anything we asked for. Well, Nic and Kris never asked for much, but..." She didn't finish whatever she perhaps was going to say.

Sam slid his right hand from her back down her arm to her hand and looked at it, "this road life isn't really one that allows for family, like meeting someone and love. Do you think you want a family and all that someday?" He realized after he said it, how odd a question it was. But she was wearing her mother's wedding ring on the proper finger. He wondered if it meant anything besides just being a piece of her family.

"Yeah, of course. I want to fall in love again, and have kids, and that little house with a dog and a cat and all that stuff. Do you?" Alex watched Sam's hand play with her fingers and smiled.

"Yeah, I want to think I can fall in love again. That someday I can be allowed, by myself, and everything, to have that life." He looked up from her fingers to her face, "It's hard in my family though. All my dad and Dean seem to think about is hunting things. Dean's just like okay with never being close to people. But I need to feel like I could get to close to someone again. That I can be happy again. I'm still getting over Jess, but I want at least a little hint of normal in my life."

"It's hard losing people you love. It starts to feel like the universe just hates you and is taking it out on those nearest you. After my dad died, I just felt like I wanted to sink into a hole and die too for a couple weeks. An..." Alex was about to share more, but her voice caught and she found herself unable to say it.

"I still sometimes can't help but feel guilty and responsible for Jess' death. I ignored dreams I had about it. I thought they had to be just dreams. I never told her who I really was, what my family really was. I feel like she died because I loved her, and she loved me and yet I never really let her know all of me. There was a huge part of who I was I never told her about. Because I thought she might not love me anymore because of it, or that it would put her in danger. But I guess just by loving her, I put her in danger." Sam didn't know what possessed him to reveal all of that, he just had to finally get it off his chest to someone. His eyes had welled up a little. Maybe he was remembering what Nic had told him about Alex having been in love and had some demon twist her boyfriend into someone she didn't know.

"I know." Alex nodded looking down after touching Sam's cheek and one of the tears that had slipped down his face.

"Nic mentioned your boyfriend, how long ago was that? And what happened?" Sam was curious. Nic hadn't really elaborated on what happened.

Alex looked a little stunned a moment, "David, he was the sweetest guy, and then over the course of a week, this demon who started stalking us latched onto David and just took everything he was. The person he used to be is like completely gone. It was the end of senior year, like a year ago now. Prom night I found him having sex with like the sluttiest girl in the class. He said what did I expect, when I wouldn't sleep with him. The real David knew I needed to take it slow, he was okay with it. But suddenly he wasn't. He called me a freak in front of everyone at school and told them I was a virgin, which apparently wasn't popular at my high school. Back before he changed, I told him about my mom. I left out the floating in air demon stuff, but otherwise I told him I was little more than a baby and witnessed her being raped and brutalized and killed. And, I never told Nic, I said he beat me up, which he did. But I knew she'd be furious to like a dangerous point if I told her that not just him, but he managed to talk some of the jerkier guys at school into help him, they may have been demon possessed or something, I don't know. But he and four other guys beat me up and raped me one night, on the black top behind the high school. It was after some pre-graduation event the school had." Tears were streaming down Alex's face now. "I know it wasn't really him, but it still looked like him and sounded like him. It's just the things he said and did weren't him. But it, it was hard."

Sam sat in shock for a moment before pulling her to him and hugging her again. "That's horrible, but why didn't you tell your sister? What do you mean she'd have been dangerously furious?"

"She wanted to go after him when she thought he'd just beaten me up. I think if she knew the whole story I couldn't have stopped her from going after him. She wanted to kill him, seriously. But she calmed down, but if she knew..." Alex shook her head against Sam's chest. "I was afraid of the two possible outcomes of them facing each other. I was afraid either she would kill him and I'd lose her. Or that he'd do to her what he did to me. Either way I couldn't have lived with myself. I almost couldn't anyway, but... Sometimes I think it almost would have been easier had David died. Because then he would have still been him. I would have felt horrible, but still felt like he was a good person who loved me. But my last memory of his face was with this wicked look in his eyes, and him hurting me every way he could. Oh god, that's probably a horrible thing to think."

"I don't know." He was still processing the whole thing. Sam could only imagine what that could have been like. "I just don't want to lose everyone I love, but I also want to have some kind of life besides just hunting. But I don't think I can, at least not till I figure out what happened to my mom and Jess. I need answers."

"Too many questions and too few answers." Alex held onto Sam now, feeling comforted by his very presence.

Sam was happy to stay like this, and just feel like he wasn't alone in this feeling. He squeezed Alex softly, holding onto her, "what about Kris? Does she know about what happened to you?"

Alex shook her head while it rested on Sam's shoulder. "No, I didn't want her saddled with that information. Especially if she had to keep it from Nic. So I didn't tell her either."

They sat a few minutes, alone together, before Kris emerged from the bathroom again, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair damp and tussled from towel drying. 


	26. Chapter 25

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 15, 2006, 8 am

Dean and Nic returned to find Alex and Sam sitting on one of the beds watching TV, but not really seeming to be paying that much attention to the TV. Kris was on the other bed, seeming to be paying more attention to the TV. Alex was dressed now, as was Sam. Dressed with no idea where they were going. Nic and Dean sat down on the other bed without saying anything, but both took a glance at their siblings, exchanging a look.

After a few minutes Dean finally spoke first, "okay, does anyone have any ideas about where to go next with this?"

They all seemed to think, and Alex looked over at him, "maybe I could do some more looking online. See if anything new turns up."

Nic then glanced at everyone, "we need to go back to the tunnels."

"No way Nicki, I'm not going in there." Alex immediately responded, the fear back in her eyes. Kris shook her head also in quick agreement with her sister.

Nic stood up, "well then don't come. I'll go." She grabbed her car keys, ready to do it herself.

Dean and Sam both hopped up, and Dean stepped in front of her. "Whoa, wait. Think about this a second. We barely got out of there, you can't go in there alone."

"You shouldn't go there at all." Sam added.

"Why?" Nic got a little defensive sounding.

"Because it's a demon that you don't know how to kill or stop. We need to know more before you charge in there." Sam put a hand on her arm, hoping she would listen.

"No, it has to be done. We're not getting anywhere. There's something in those tunnels. It's hiding something, and I'm going to find out what it is." Nic picked up her phone, and slipped her knife back into her jeans.

Sam looked at Dean, hoping he'd back him up, but he could tell Dean was already considering going along for the ride. "I'll go with you then." Dean was already ready to follow Nic.

Sam looked over at Alex who seemed to be processing everything. She looked at him with a slightly pained expression, but then forced a crooked smile. "Fine, then I'm going too. I'm not going to let it break me." Alex stood up now sounding determined.

"I guess I'll go too then." Sam sighed, then caught Kris' eyes, she looked nervous, not ready to jump up and go, but not like she wanted to be left either. "Did you want to stay, or come?"

Nic looked over at Kris, she wasn't going to tell her sister not to come, but she wasn't going to tell her she had to come either. Kris seemed to ponder it a moment, she didn't really want to be alone, but she didn't want to go either. Those tunnels had been dark and scary. Kris didn't say anything, but she climbed off the bed and slipped on some shoes, she didn't want to be the only one waiting here. 


	27. Chapter 26

Old Mining Tunnels  
May 15, around 9 am

They parked in about the same spot as last time. However, Nic had driven and they all rode in her car this time. Walking to the entrance, Alex laced her hand in Sam's again. He'd kept her safe the last time, so she was sticking with what worked. "Okay, this time, no splitting up, no exploring. We are looking for the tunnel Dean and I found. The one that we found the markings in right before the demon interrupted. I need to find out what's down the narrowing of the tunnel."

Kris clung to her flashlight with both hands, a little tighter it seemed with each step closer to the entrance.

"Now I see, you pick your moments to be all assertive and commanding." Dean leaned in behind her and whispered.

"Yeah, so?" She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering why he decided now was a good time for jokes. "Come on."

"Yes ma'am." Dean made a little fake salute and then lightly patted her butt and she jumped slightly and let out a breath. "Good, now keep breathing." Dean smirked at her and headed first into the tunnels while Sam and Alex glanced at both of them looking a little confused, but following after Nic when she rolled her eyes and followed Dean. Kris actually giggled a little at Dean patting her sister's butt and Nic's reaction. Dean glanced over his shoulder at her and gave her a wink and she smiled, trying to breathe a little herself.

"That's the tunnel," Alex pointed, remembering that was where she'd pointed to them that they go before. It wasn't that far into the tunnels, but it was definitely dark. There was a curve between the entrance and this 'branch off' and so no light from outside made it this far in.

They turned down the tunnel, Sam and Alex moved a little slower, more cautiously, keeping their ears open for noises, anything that might hint that the demon might be coming. "It's really quiet, was it this quiet last time?" Sam imagined they could hear a pin drop in the tunnel it was so quiet.

"I don't know. It seemed pretty quiet the last time." Dean turned to look at his brother a moment, then turned back. They each had a flashlight and continued moving them along checking the walls.

"That's the tunnel that was hidden when we came down this way last time." Nic pointed it out and Dean nodded. Kris was trying to keep pace with Nic right now, walking close, while still keeping out of her sister's way.

"We should be getting close then I think." Dean stopped his flashlight a few minutes later when it found one of the markings. "Nic, here. This is the one you found before I think."

Nic moved over next to him and moved her flashlight to join his, then pulled out her camera and took a picture.

Kris looked a minute at the thing on the wall and looked around near by for more. It seemed like something that wouldn't normally be down in a mining tunnel, and it looked vaguely like the same kind of thing that was on the woman's foot.

"Here's another." Alex found one on the other side, near the narrowed tunnel. Nic took a picture of the one her sister found also.

"Hopefully I can try translating these later and see if I find what they mean. Might help in finding what it's doing down here." They looked around, noticing no signs the demon was around and moved into the narrowing tunnel. This time Nic found she could see into a chamber at the end of the narrow fairly easily with her flashlight, unlike last time. "Possible good news, the demon may be gone. Bad news, it may be gone." Which meant that she and her sisters would have to wait till it struck again. Which could be a matter of days, or it could be a year.

"What makes you say that?" Alex looked uneasy still, while Nic was looking more relaxed.

"Dean, did you get a look down this tunnel before?" Nic turned to him, wondering if he had noticed before what she had.

"Yeah, even with the flashlight it was like pitch black down there. That's weird. But then demons have all kinds of weird mojo." Dean appeared to have relaxed a little too.

They moved into the chamber and found more Sanskrit writing and an inverted pentagram on the wall. Nic stared for a moment before pulling it together enough to get out her camera again.

"Oh my god." Sam shivered when they entered. He could just feel something bad went on here before he even spotted the inverted pentagram. "Something seriously evil happened here. This place just oozes bad vibes."

"Thank you, Miss Cleo. I don't think we needed a crystal ball to figure that one." Dean said with that serious face he had as he too looked around a bit unnerved by the feeling even he got from the place.

Kris didn't even go all the way in. She peeked inside the chamber and stayed in the narrowed tunnel. It was just too creepy feeling in there. She kind of huddled herself against the wall and turned her back to the chamber.

Sam shot his brother a look of annoyance and squeezed Alex's hand, as she'd sort of frozen there, just staring at everything. She turned her head and looked at Sam, trying to smile, but it didn't really work that way. Sam stepped in closer to her, and she leaned her head back on his shoulder closing her eyes a moment then looked up at him. "Can you get me out of here, now?"

Sam nodded, "Hey, Alex and I are going to head back out. Don't take too long, okay?"

"Okay." Both Nic and Dean said, glancing briefly over their shoulders at Sam and Alex.

Then Sam lead Alex back to the narrowed tunnel. Only when he saw Kris huddled against the wall did he realize she hadn't followed the rest of them in. "Kris? You alright?"

Alex looked at Kris with worry, reaching for her sister now, and hugging her. "I know, it feels evil in there."

"I'll be okay. I just didn't like it in there. I don't really like it in here either." Kris looked around, leaning into Alex a little.

Sam kind of wrapped his arms around both girls and gave them a soft squeeze, "let's head for the outside. Nic and Dean can make their way out, hopefully in a couple minutes." He was hoping his brother and Nic wouldn't take too long in there. The girls nodded and they started to make their way back out the tunnels.

Dean watched Nic take a bunch of pictures and looked around at things himself. "But seriously Nic, not too long."

"Is it creeping you out?" Nic looked over at him. Her tone almost made him wonder if she was teasing, but the look on her face said she wasn't.

"Yeah, a little." Dean admitted, flashing his light over at the pentagram when she motioned she needed more light on it for her shot.

"Me too." She seemed to look around critically, and took one more shot of the chamber. "Let's get out of here."

Dean moved a couple steps to her and with his hand on her back, they made their way out.


	28. Chapter 27

The Silver Queen Motel  
May 15, 2006, Noonish

They all returned to the motel and came in appearing to be in various states of fear, hope, and disappointment. The drive back was mostly silent, with not much sound other than the sound of Alex shifting in the back seat, humming, and curling up against Sam, whom she hadn't broken physical contact with since they headed into the tunnels. She and Sam sat down on the first bed. Dean and Kris on the other, while Nic was on the floor pulling open her laptop to transfer the images right away. Alex looked around, "Um, so, what now?"

"Well, this time at least we have some more clues. Better than the past, like, 10 months we've spent chasing it after that one attack in Florida. You said you wanted to stop home, we can do that." Nic looked at Alex now, " you and Kris can stay there and start school in Fall if you guys want. I'll try and work this stuff out and then maybe hit the road again." Nic just sort of started talking as she fussed around the computer, getting the camera hooked in and transferring the images.

Everyone sort of looked at her now. Dean's mind started turning over those same fears, doubts, and 'I don't care' thoughts that he had earlier. Sam glanced at him trying to figure out if Dean would protest him asking the girls to stay with them, or if they could follow them home or something.

It was Alex, though, who opened her mouth. "Nic, couldn't we all here use a little more help and companionship then what we'd had before this?" She glanced across at Kris who looked worried, her legs curled up to her body now, looking over at Nic, maybe trying to will her to not just leave and drop them home and go off.

Nic was only half listening and spoke without turning her head, "I guess so Alex, but what's your point?"

"Nic." Alex said and Nic nodded. "Nicki, are you hearing me?"

"Yeah, I heard you." Then she made some noise as the files transferred and one popped up and she started examining the image.

"Oh god, Nic, please get what she's saying." Dean had his eyes closed now and spoke. Though his mouth barely moved, and no one but himself heard it, which was, of course, more than Dean had even intended. He looked around now wondering if anyone noticed his moment of weakness.

"Nicollette Isabelle Wakefield!" Alex decided to try the old parental device, and it worked just as she'd hoped. Her sister spun around, all attention on Alex now. She was on her feet, looking desperate. Both guys raised their eye brows and then glanced at each other. "Get what I'm trying to ask you. Please. I'm tired of being alone out here. I mean, I love you and Kris, but sometimes, just us, it gets to be too much. I don't want you to run off and do this alone because then all Kris and I will do is worry about you. Maybe you're okay without us, but..." Alex then choked on her words and didn't finish her thought and instead picked up another.

Kris stood up and grabbed hold of Alex's arm and nodded at Nic. "We don't want you doing this on your own, but it's also nice not just being the three of us stuck in a car together." Her voice was soft and wobbled a little, but her words were clear enough.

"Dean and Sam are like us, they do what we do. Seems like the more minds at work and back up, the better. And it's nice to not feel like we're the lone freaks in the world." She now looked from her sister to the guys, "I think it'd be nice to not go this road all alone."

Sam wanted to jump up and kiss Alex for her boldness, but settled for just jumping up and wrapping his arms around her and Kris, squeezing until he heard Alex make pained sound because he'd tugged at her bandage. "Sorry. But thank you." He looked at Dean, hoping he wasn't about to kill the whole idea. "Dean, please."

"I'm not arguing. Five heads do seem to work better than two." Dean remained sitting and simply nodded calmly. He refused to betray his real feelings. But inside he was happier than even he could believe.

Nic looked at everyone, but especially her sisters and smiled. While Sam still had them in a bit of an embrace, Nic walked over and put her arms around her sisters. "Okay, Alex." Then she pulled back again and dropped down onto the bed left vacant by Sam and Alex standing up. "So then, what is next?"

"Well, we could head into California. I noticed something weird happening in the central valley that came across my email our first night here. I didn't get to check into it a lot, but we could research it tonight, see if it's really something worth checking out." Dean suggested looking first at Sam, then Alex and Kris, and then letting his gaze lock onto Nic.

The End/To be continued...


End file.
